Father Serra to Receive Sainthood
As someone who has spend several years researching Father Serra and other Franciscans who established the missions of Upper California, I think this is long overdue.
I am NOT a Roman Catholic and am not about to consider Father Serra my patron saint or anything like that. The reason I studied his was having grown up in Southern California and hearing lots of things about those times that made no sense to me.
Why did thousands of California Indians voluntarily come to the missions – and stay there? They were not held in chains. Father Serra and the other Franciscans loved them as their children and treated them as was the custom in 18th Century western culture. They were never severely beaten as the strict rules said “spanking” was approprate, as long and it did not draw blood or even bruise.
The Franciscans punished themselves far more by flagellation in which blood poured down the backs.
There are many other links to this story but I'll stay with the original church announcement @
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/sto...ns/1500192.htm as well as @
http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today...-be-made-saint