Free Republic

Denver, Colo., May 26, 2023 / 13:15 pm Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco said Thursday that prosecutors’ decision to reduce the charge against activists who destroyed a parish’s statue of a saint from felony to misdemeanor sends the signal that attacks against the Catholic Church can continue with impunity. “It is clear to me that this course of action would not have been taken with anyone else. In fact, if the same kind of offense had been committed against another religious congregation or group, it would almost certainly have been prosecuted as a hate crime,” Cordileone said. Cordileone’s statement...

A fire broke out at the San Gabriel Mission and completely burned the church’s roof early Saturday, officials said. Authorities have not said what may have caused the blaze at the 249-year-old church on 428 S. Mission Drive. Video recorded before daylight shows dark smoke rising from the flames. Officials did no report any injuries. The church, founded in 1771, was the fourth of 21 missions established by the priest Junipero Serra, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“Always forward, never back!” Saint Junípero’s motto reflects a missioner’s spirit, regardless of setbacks. He sought not to suppress, but rather to help improve lives, protecting Native Americans from soldiers’ excesses. He was often scorned by conquistadors. Prayer: Saint Junipero Serra, your missionary zeal brought the light of Christ to millions. You endured so many hardships, and labored so much that your work resonates today in the hearts of hundreds of millions of Catholics. Saint Serra, I petition you today to help me deliver the light of Christ through my words and deeds to others. May I instruct by example...

Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco led a Holy Hour of Reparation on Saturday morning at the site of the destruction of the St. Junipero Serra statue. Vandals tore down and defaced the monument on June 19. The Act of Reparation included the Holy Rosary and Latin prayers of exorcism. The service concluded with the archbishop blessing the site with holy water. Msgr. Stephen Rossetti of the St. Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal said the archbishop performed a minor exorcism and commanded Satan to leave. He recited the Pope Leo XII Deliverance Prayers for People, Places or Things, also...

[Catholic Caucus] The Junipero Serra Skirmish The Church is losing it. The California Catholic Conference issued a brief statement last week decrying the toppling of Junipero Serra statues. But the statement did little to stiffen the spines of Catholic clerics. The statement sought to reason with the mob, noting that Junipero Serra devoted his life to the service of Indians and protected them from Spanish soldiers. At the bottom of this wobbliness is the loss of conviction about the Church’s mission. Church officials simply don’t believe in it anymore. “The historical truth is that Serra repeatedly pressed the Spanish authorities...

First, it was the defacing (or removing) of Confederate statues in the East and South. Now it’s the defacing and vandalism of St. Junipero Serra statues in the West. This is a comparatively new wrinkle in the news – this trend of destroying the symbols of history with which one doesn’t personally agree. I wonder if such vandalism is the new normal. This certainly raises reporting questions for journalists covering this kind of story. For the latest on what’s happening in California, we turn to various local media on how they’ve covered the latest incidents. First, from the San Francisco...

Statue of Newly Sainted Missionary Vandalized in Carmel By NBC Bay Area Staff A statue of Father Junipero Serra was vandalized at the church where he is buried overnight Saturday in Northern California, according to the church. Serra was canonized as a saint by Pope Francis this week in a controversial move – some Native Americans say the California's missions, which Serra helped found, cut their ancestors off from their traditional languages and cultures and enslaved those who converted to Christianity.

Carmel >> A special Mass celebrating the canonization of Saint Junipero Serra was marred on Sunday by vandalism at Carmel Mission Basilica. A 6-foot tall bronze statue of Serra in the mission courtyard was pushed over and the staff in the statue’s hand was broken. A fountain next to the statue was splattered with paint, as were the doors of the cathedral.

As a visitor to the United States, Pope Francis faces a minor challenge: His English isn’t so great. Over the course of the trip, he’ll give 18 speeches, and only four of them will be in English; he’ll mostly use his native language, Spanish, to give homilies and addresses. But at Wednesday’s mass in Washington, D.C., at which Francis will canonize Father Junipero Serra, he’ll add another linguistic twist. The main prayers of the service, along with the celebration of the Eucharist—the part of the service when people take communion—will be in Latin. Latin! This is an exclamation-mark-worthy fact for...

When Pope Francis canonizes Father Junípero Serra on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., Serra will be the first Hispanic American saint, and the first saint canonized on American soil. He also figures to be one of the most controversial saints in the long history of the Roman Catholic Church – a symbol that roils some hearts even as it lifts others. Serra, an 18th-century Spanish friar who founded nine of the 21 California missions, including Mission San Juan Capistrano, is gaining sainthood, in part, because he helped bring the church to the Americas. By one reckoning, Serra’s legacy is nothing less...

... Statues of ... historical figures stand in the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall, where each state has two representatives cast in bronze or marble ... [Father Junipero] Serra could be the first and only actual saint in Statuary Hall -- Pope Francis recently announced plans to canonize him -- yet he's also a polarizing figure. Is it time to send Serra to the sidelines (or more accurately, move his statue to the California Capitol grounds)? ... Take our pointedly unreliable poll, leave a comment or do both! ...

<p>Pope Francis announced Thursday that he will canonize Father Junipero Serra, the founder of California’s missions and a controversial figure for his role in a process that began the decimation of the Native American population here.</p> <p>The pope said the canonization — the formal elevation of a person to sainthood — will take place in September, when he’s scheduled to visit the East Coast.</p>

A half-naked man state police said tried to run down an elderly man and his grandson in the South End because they objected to the volume of his car radio was captured in Framingham after leading troopers on a high-speed game of bumper cars on the Mass Pike. Alejandro E. Serra, 29, of Framingham, who state police said had a suspended driver’s license, will be arraigned tomorrow on multiple assault and reckless driving charges in Boston Municipal Court, where there is also a warrant for his arrest accusing him of skipping out on a June 10 pretrial hearing on a...

A Richard Serra sculpture is not always an easy experience. Most famous over the nearly half century of his career for the towering, metal shapes that have graced civic spaces from Tokyo to New York to Bilbao, Spain, he specializes in the monumental, the breathtaking, and the surprising. His deceptively unfettered, simple metal walls that cut through public walkways and plazas have confounded some while delighting others. This sheer physicality of his sculptures force passersby to approach the space with a new awareness. ........ "Public sculpture used to have a code," says the San Francisco native, who acquired his early...

Madrid 'mislays' Serra sculpture The sculpture comprises four large slabs A leading Spanish museum has admitted it has lost a massive steel sculpture which weighs 38 tonnes. Madrid's Reina Sofia Museum bought the Richard Serra sculpture in the 1980s for more than $200,000 (£114,000). The museum says that in 1990 it put the sculpture in a warehouse belonging to a company that specialises in storing large-scale artwork. But when it sought to put the sculpture back on display a few months ago, no-one knew where to find it. The police are now investigating its disappearance. The museum, one of Madrid's...

SAN FRANCISCO - J. Tony Serra, the civil rights lawyer who inspired the 1988 movie "True Believer," pleaded guilty Tuesday to two federal tax evasion charges and faces as long as 16 months in prison. Serra, who is defending Greg Anderson - Barry Bonds' trainer in the BALCO steroids scandal - hasn't paid taxes since 1991. In a plea agreement, he admitted not paying $18,000 in taxes for 1998 and $26,000 in 1999 and said he would pay all back taxes to 1991, estimated at $100,000. The 70-year-old Serra, who has taken a vow of poverty, drives old beaten cars,...