As protesters on Friday toppled a statue of Father Junipero Serra in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, leaders of another California city had already announced plans to remove a statue of the Catholic saint near their city hall. And by Saturday afternoon another Serra statue was toppled at Placita Olvera in downtown Los Angeles. “Pull Read more
The Catholic bishops of California have defended Saint Junipero Serra after statues of the saint were torn down both in San Francisco and Los Angeles. He was “ahead of his time” in defending the rights of indigenous peoples,” they say. Those who called for statues of him to be removed or torn down “failed the Read more
A statue of Catholic missionary St. Junipero Serra was toppled in a San Francisco park Friday, along with statues of Francis Scott Key and Ulysses S. Grant. The statues were torn down Friday evening from Golden Gate Park, by a group of about 100 people. During the eighteenth century, the saint founded nine Catholic missions Read more
The controversy stirred up by the canonisation of St Junípero Serra is still raging in America. It’s a reminder that with social media and modern communications there is ever greater accessibility to the “human” side of contemporary saints. In some cases the hostility is between those responsible for a particular Cause. Here are five of the more Read more
Days after St Junipero Serra was canonised by Pope Francis, a statue of him has been defaced in California in what local police say is a hate crime. The vandalism of the statue of St Junipero at Carmel Mission, where he is buried, came three days after the canonisation in Washington, DC. Vandals damaged statues, Read more