Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the defacement of a statue of Saint Junípero Serra:
“Murder” was written on a statue of Saint Junípero Serra. His hands were painted red and a swastika was depicted on the statue of the child standing next to him. The defacement took place near the San Fernando Mission, outside of Los Angeles. Fortunately, everything was quickly cleaned up.
Pope Francis canonized Father Serra in 2015. The 18th century priest personally founded six missions, baptizing more than 6,000 Indians. He did more to defend the natural rights of Indians against Spanish conquistadors than any other leader at the time, secular or religious.
Gregory Orfalea and James A. Sandos have offered two of the most authoritative accounts of the work of Saint Serra. “To the Indian,” writes Orfalea, “he [Serra] was loving, enthusiastic, and spiritually and physically devoted.” To the accusation that the missionaries destroyed Indian culture, Sandos says, “Although many historians once thought that Indian culture had been eradicated, anthropologists and other observers have provided evidence to the contrary.”
To read my booklet on Father Serra’s life and heroics, click here.
The assault on this revered priest comes on the heels of many attacks on historical figures, all stemming from the Charlottesville tragedy. As with those episodes, the persons involved in this barbarism have accepted the hate-filled propaganda of extremists, misrepresenting history to serve a radical agenda. Indeed, I told the Catholic League staff last week that the missionaries would be next.
We are involved in a frontal assault on Western civilization. This is cultural cleansing, and the fanatics will not stop until they remake America to fit their warped vision of reality. They are stuck in the time warp of the 1960s, and still refer to the U.S. as AmeriKKKa. We need to resist this campaign at every step of the way.
