Posted on 11/28/2021 5:27:58 PM PST by marshmallow
A statue of Saint Junípero Serra must return to the Loyola Marymount University campus, an alumni group has said in a letter and petition to the president of the Los Angeles-area Catholic university.
St. Junípero Serra “recently completed the lengthy and rigorous examination process involved in becoming a canonized saint,” Marcos Chavira, a Loyola Marymount University 1995 graduate, said in an open letter to university president Timothy Snyder, posted at the Renew LMU website.
“Regardless of what any committee may recommend to you, we hope your decision about this statue does not further erode our Catholic identity,” Chavira said.
He cited Pope Francis’ words about Serra during a Sept. 23, 2015 canonization Mass. Serra “sought to defend the dignity of the native community, to protect it from those who had mistreated and abused it,” the pope said.
Chavira’s letter to Snyder cited recent comments from Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles and Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco.
Serra “defended indigenous people’s humanity, decried the abuse of indigenous women, and argued against imposing the death penalty on natives who had burned down a mission and murdered one of his friends,” the archbishops wrote in a Sept. 12 essay for the Wall Street Journal. “At age 60, ill and with a chronically sore leg, Serra traveled 2,000 miles to Mexico City to demand that authorities adopt a native bill of rights he had written.”
The statue dates back to the 1990s, when it was placed outside the campus library as a gift of William H. Hannon, a Catholic philanthropist and passionate admirer of Serra. Hannon was a major benefactor of the campus, an honorary trustee, and regent emeritus. Many campus buildings are named for him at the university, which claims affiliation with both the Society of Jesus and the Religious.....
(Excerpt) Read more at angelusnews.com ...
They must be racists. 🤡
Good for the alumni! Sane people everywhere need to speak up without letup against the premeditated forcing of idiotic edicts in every institution of society
“They must be racists.”
Father Serra is the racist. He enslaved and oppressed the Native Californians.
That’s dogma today.
They hate Father Serra.
Good for the alumni! Sane people everywhere need to speak up without letup against the premeditated forcing of idiotic edicts in every institution of society
You know, with all this fuss, I got into some OLD books, and read up on the Franciscan Monk. He was a GREAT soul. And the friends he got to follow him and transform California. They should be grateful.
I am surprised that the Hispanics of California have not protested the removal of St. Junipero Serra’s statue.
It shows how little they know or care about their own history.
Father Serra did not enslaved anybody!
He lived saintly life, trading university professorship for missionary hardship. Living in poverty. Walking from Veracruz to California and back and forth.
He lived under Spanish Bourbon king Carlos III and was a contemporary of our Founding Fathers. The abuses of the conquistadores were long over. Spanish empire was in terminal decay.
Of course, the idiots who think they know everything, are equating him with Cortez and other rough guys who did the enslaving. But they lived like 200 years before Father Serra.
Blaming Father Serra for their sins is like blaming us for the abuses of the slaveowners of the Early USA, also about 200 years separation.
Oh, but CRT are blaming us for their sins too!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
