Saturday, February 14, 2015

Saint Making

The Catholic Church is about to name Junipero Serra a saint.  He founded a bunch of Catholic missions in California before it was California., and introduced Christianity through these missions.  They are visited by many tourists to this day.  The Native American population takes issue with his canonization.  Serra traveled with the conquistadores.  They say he was part of the enslavement of the people and spread disease that wiped many of them out.  What struck me was that his defense said "he must be judged in the context of his time."  Say what?  I did not think saints were judged in context.  They did extraordinary good or they did not.  They lived quite exemplary lives or they did not.  If we want to start judging in the context of their times, Alexander VI, the Borgia Renaissance Pope did a lot of good things "for his time."  So did other renaissance popes but they will never be made saints.  They did some not so good things too.

1 comment:

  1. I have a sister that should be a saint in the context of her time.

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