I have just read a misinformation post (mostly misinformation or at best one-sided exaggeration) about a holy Franciscan missionary by not one, not two, but three contributors: Joe Mozingo, Matt Hamilton, and Jeff Gottlieb from the Los Angeles Times. Astounding, but hardly surprising, given the secular climate we are swimming in! As if any of these contributors could have lasted a day doing such work of charity as Father Serra did, in such extreme poverty, all for the eternal happiness of far away neighbors steeped in idolatry. What motivated Blessed Junipero Serra? Jesus and Mary motivated him. The Cross motivated him.
Could Mozingo, Hamilton, and Gottlieb appreciate that? Do any of these men believe in the truth that no one can be saved outside the Church? Of course not! So Serra makes no sense to them. Read the real facts about the heroic Junipero Serra here. Read just a few bits of this real information below about how our hero suffered. Learn what horrors he saved some of the Indians from, horrors from other merciless tribes, horrors from their own blood-thirsty idols, from insatiable demons who hated them (and, moreso the missionaries), and left their lives miserable and full of fear.
Jim Graves: The Catholic World Report: Pope Francis recently announced his intention to canonize Spanish padre, Blessed Junípero Serra Ferrer, O.F.M. (1713-84) when he visits the United States this fall. Serra was from the Spanish island possession of Majorca, off the east coast of Spain, and traveled to the New World with his fellow Franciscans to evangelize the native peoples of Mexico and California. Beginning in 1769, he established the first nine of 21 California missions. Read the rest of the article here and note the books that are cited giving the true history, unfiltered, about the Franciscans in California.
