Pope Francis Canonizes Junipero Serra As Newest Catholic Saint

Seeing this headline struck me. I love when my classes cross paths and we had just got done reading a scholarly article about Serra and all the things that went down with the Spanish in a different class of mine. This blows my mind that Serra is now considered a saint. The Spanish soldiers that were meant to protect the ministers but were forcing the Catholic religion down the throats of the Native Americans. Not only were the soldiers doing that, they were raping the Native American women, under Serra's watch. The Native American's resources were all depleted by the Spanish and the women were basically forced into prostitution just so they could eat and provide for their families. Native American women were held up with a respect in that community and then had to go to those lengths to just get food or other resources. I understand he was a missionary and was trying to convert the Native Americans to Catholicism but with this happening it forced prostitution into the this country. Before the Western views came to North America, the Natives did not trade goods or services for sex, they may have done other things that we do not find socially acceptable, but that is the Western views that we hold. So it was not wrong in their culture to do the other things they did and by the forcing of another religion on them was incredibly destructive. I am so shocked that this man is now sanctified.

Samantha Koldenhoven

Here is the article from the Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/junipero-serra-saint-pope-francis_5602eef5e4b00310edf9b362

Here is the other article I read in my other class

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3346876?origin=JSTOR-pdf&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents