Catholic Students Watch Pope Francis' Canonization In L.A.

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Nearly 1,500 Catholic school students gathered to watch Pope Francis canonize Junipero Serra via broadcast at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels Wednesday afternoon in downtown Los Angeles.

The cathedral held a live broadcast of the Pope’s special mass for students from 35 middle and high schools around the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

“I learned of Father Junipero Serra when I was in fourth grade,” student Daniel Recinos said. “I did a mission on him and I did the San Gabriel mission and visited ever since, and been a follower and praying to him always and praying that he would get canonized soon.” 

“It’s important to me because this event doesn’t happen very often and especially since it’s blessed Junipero Serra, he founded many missions around here,” student Jasmin Abrica said.

Serra was an 18th century missionary who founded the first nine of 21 missions in California. The pope regards Serra as “one of the founding fathers” of the United States.

Some Native Americans oppose the canonization, however. Serra was known for using corporal punishment on Native Americans in his quest to spread Christianity along the Californian coast.

Not all saints were “saints” in real life. The Catholic church takes both good and bad aspects of potential saints into consideration during the canonization process, USC Associate Dean of Religious Life Rev. Jim Burklo said.

“So the church went through a whole process and did recognize that really bad mistakes were made by Serra and made by missionaries and the Spaniards that brought them to the Americas,” Burklo said.  “So this was not a perfect person with a perfect record by any stretch.”

Working under the Spanish crown, Serra arrived in California established the network of missions by his death is 1789 and converted nearly 5,000 Indians according to PBS.

 “Still last I checked every single saint that has been canonized as by the Catholic Church is a human being,” Burklo said. “Not one of them without faults or errors or mistakes. All of them, every one of them a product of their time and their culture and that was certainly the case for Junipero Serra.”

The canonization is part of the Pope’s historic six-day visit to the U.S. He held a special mass in Spanish at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. This is the first canonization on U.S. soil.

“Having the pope come here to do it and particularly with a founder of the country that has worked on this side of the country, the west coast,” Burklo said. “That’s a big deal and a big celebration for all Americans, but particularly Latino Americans and Catholics on the west coast.”