Saint or Sinner?

In her Oct. 26 column (“On the Verge of Sainthood”), Patt Morrison quotes Father Noel Moholy, who is pushing for Father Serra’s sainthood, as stating that Native American opposition to his sainthood is “bunkum.”

Having taught Native American history for 20 years at a California community college, I can assure you that opposition to Father Serra’s sainthood is based on documented evidence. It shows that a majority of the California Indians were forced to do slave labor for the Spaniards and converted to Catholicism with no understanding of the religion since they did not speak Spanish.

If Pope John Paul II really wants to apologize to California’s Indians, most of whom are Catholic, he can start by refusing sainthood to Father Serra.

Jeanne L. Miller

Ventura

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Simply put, the purpose of Father Serra and his missions was to bring the Indians out of their abject misery and into a God-fearing, self-supporting life.

In “Kit Carson’s Own Story of His Life,” edited by Blanche C. Grant, Carson recites that in 1829, on a trip to the Sacramento Valley with Mr. Ewing Young, they arrived at the Mission of San Gabriel, “where there was one priest, 15 soldiers and about 1,000 Indians. They had about 80,000 cattle, fine fields and vineyards, in fact, it was Paradise on earth.”

This is from an American eyewitness who testifies as to the nature of Father Serra’s missions. The missions should be classified Father Serra’s first miracle, and he should be canonized a saint as soon as possible.

Tom E. Martinez

Downey

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Morrison’s opinion that Father Serra is “an astute choice [for sainthood] in a state on the verge of a Latino majority” bothers my Catholicism. Certainly this wonderful man would want to be canonized for his accomplishments and not because his race would be a correct political choice.

Stacy Sterling-Buckley

Ventura