Congress Votes to Repair Missions

California’s 21 Spanish missions, crumbling from age and neglect, would receive $10 million for repairs under a bill approved Wednesday by the U.S. House of Representatives.

President Bush is expected to sign the legislation despite protests from one civil rights group, which argues that public funds should not be used for religious structures.

Supporters of the missions said the money would help them move forward with a long-delayed campaign to fix the structures.

The centuries-old chain of missions needs seismic retrofitting, new roofs and tiles, electrical and plumbing systems and restrooms to serve the 5 million visitors each year.

Mission San Miguel, north of San Luis Obispo, is the state’s most dilapidated. It was closed after the December earthquake in Paso Robles because it was deemed unsafe. Walls pulled apart, statues broke and a crack running the length of the church appeared after the 6.5 quake.

“They’re deteriorating,” said Knox Mellon, executive director of the California Missions Foundation, a private nonprofit organization that would distribute the money. “I don’t think we can realistically rehabilitate the California missions without some public money. And we need a quick infusion of something substantive. Twenty dollars, $50, $100 donations, that’s not going to rehabilitate them.”

Spanish friars, including Father Junipero Serra, built the chain of missions along California’s El Camino Real from 1769 to 1823 to colonize the region. Stretching from Sonoma to San Diego, the missions have a decidedly mixed legacy because Native Americans were mistreated and forced to help build the massive adobe structures.

Today, the Catholic Church owns 19 of them, and most still operate as churches. The state owns the remaining two. Many of the millions of visitors are fourth-graders on field trips as part of their California history curriculum.

Mellon said surveys conducted by the foundation show the amount of time California missions are used for religious purposes is “very small” compared with the time devoted to tourism. And, he pointed out, the bill requires the U.S. attorney general to verify the money isn’t being spent in violation of the 1st Amendment.

“Our position has always been that what we’re commemorating is historic landmarks that are critical to California,” Mellon said. “They are our pyramids. The missions have the same relationship to California as the pyramids do to Egypt. They represent the settlement of California, the beginning of agriculture and our system of roads.”

But the watchdog group Americans United for Church and State said the bill violated the 1st Amendment.

“The Constitution clearly forbids government from funding religion,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based group. “Taxpayers should never be forced to maintain houses of worship.”

The mission foundation has a goal of raising $50 million to refurbish the buildings and their grounds. The money will also be used to restore the missions’ ornate gardens and contents, including paintings and statues.

At Mission San Miguel, the estimated cost of repairs is $26 million.

The process of shoring up the mission’s walls could threaten the integrity of priceless wall paintings dating to 1824 and done by Spanish artist Esteban Munras, with the aid of local Salinan Indians.

“I think it’s wonderful because this is a historic monument,” said Sister Loretta Guevarra, who works at Mission San Miguel. “We’re in a small town and we don’t have the means to get all the money it takes to fix this, so it’s going to be a big help for us. The church part is in very bad shape and the colonnade in front is not safe.”

Kevin Drabinski, spokesman for the Diocese of Monterey, said the seven missions in his diocese date from 1770 for Mission Carmel to 1797 for Mission San Miguel.

“All of our missions over the years have survived earthquakes, fire and floods,” Drabinski said. “Our generation is dealing with earthquakes and the ravages of time.”

Father Art Holquin, who oversees Mission San Juan Capistrano, a showplace of the mission system that draws about half a million tourists a year, said Mission San Miguel would likely receive immediate attention for a grant from the $10 million.

“Some of the missions are in locations that do not have the marketing and infrastructure that we have and others have,” he said. “But we have needs too. And we’ll apply for those grants.”

San Juan Capistrano just finished a 12-year stabilization of the Great Stone Church -- a ruin at the mission -- that cost millions of dollars, he said.

Now, the southern Orange County mission is focusing attention on the Serra Chapel, which dates to about 1790.

“It has gone through a multitude of restorations, but there’s a need to do work with the historical artifacts that are housed inside

Times staff writer Daryl Kelley contributed to this report.