Vatican Goes on Offensive to Defend US-Spanish Saint

*This story caused plenty of controversy when the plans to canonize Junipero Serra were first announced in January of this year. There’s a definite date for the ceremony, and Native American organizations are protesting loudly. They say Serra’s actions were genocide, Vatican officials say he was a man of his time, when corporal punishment was an educational tool. VL

By Noicole Winfield, Associated Press/ABC News

The Vatican is mounting a campaign to defend an 18th century Franciscan missionary who will be canonized by Pope Francis in the U.S. against protests from Native Americans who have compared his conversion of natives to genocide.

The Vatican is teaming up with the archdiocese of Los Angeles and the main U.S. seminary in Rome to host a daylong celebration May 2 at the North American College to honor the Rev. Junipero Serra, who introduced Christianity to much of California as he marched north with Spanish conquistadors. Francis will celebrate Mass in his honor.

For the church, Serra was a great evangelizer and a model for today’s Hispanics. Many Native Americans, though, say Serra helped wipe out native populations, enslaved converts and spread disease as he brutally imposed Christianity on them. They have staged protests in California and there is a move to remove his statue from the U.S. Capitol.

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