ROME
Pulse (Nigeria)
Pope Francis has defended an 18th-century Spanish Catholic priest on Saturday from accusations that he brutalized Native Americans in missionary work that helped lay the foundations for the Catholic Church in the United States.
The pontiff intends to make a saint, Father Junipero Serra at a Mass celebrated at the National Shrine in Washington on Sept 23 during his US visit.
The Franciscan missionary built a series of missions along the Pacific coast in the latter 18th century, in what is now California, to spread the faith among Native Americans there.
Tribal leaders in California say Serra beat and imprisoned local peoples, suppressed their cultures and facilitated the spread of diseases that decimated the population, Christian Post reports
Without addressing specific accusations, Francis praised Serra’s missionary zeal and said the priest “defended the indigenous peoples against abuses by the colonizers”.
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