Pope: Sainthood for controversial Spanish missionary Junipero Serra

WASHINGTON - Pope Francis on Wednesday proclaimed the sainthood of the Rev. Junipero Serra, a controversial 18th-century Spanish missionary who evangelized among the indigenous people of California.

The elaborate ceremony - the first-ever canonization of a saint in the United States - was held at the enormous Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Serra's cause is particularly dear to Francis, the first Latin American to be elected pope, because he says it honors the special place that Latinos have in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States - and in its future.

Francis has also referred to Serra, a Franciscan priest who died in 1784, as "a founding father of the U.S." Serra is credited with creating nine of the 21 iconic Catholic Spanish mission churches in California, including San Juan Capistrano.

But the legacy of Serra's missionary work is exceptionally contentious among some American Indians of the western United States, where he is remembered for having virtually enslaved thousands of native converts into the work camps of Spanish colonizers. To those who fled and were caught, Serra ordered harsh floggings as a deterrent to others.

Critics also view Serra as part of the brutal Spanish conquest of the region that also brought widespread disease to a population with no natural defenses against them. The Indian population of California plummeted from an estimated 300,000 to 150,000 between the early 18th and 19th centuries, according to scholars.

Francis touched lightly on those criticisms in his homily at the day's canonization Mass.

"Mistreatment and wrongs which today still trouble us," he said in Spanish, "especially because of the hurt they cause in the lives of many people."

But he also praised Serra's treatment of American Indians - he was said to have protected the women from rape by Spanish soldiers - saying Serra had "sought to defend the dignity of the native community, to protect it from those who had mistreated and abused it."

Francis fast-tracked Serra's canonization by eliminating the traditional requirement that two miracles be attributed to a person's intercession. Serra is credited with only one miracle, the healing of a nun whose lupus was cured after she prayed to him.

"The pope is calling all of us in America to reflect on our history and our nations' Hispanic and Catholic heritage," Cardinal Jose Gomez of Los Angeles told a gathering of journalists in Philadelphia earlier this month, "and our legacy as a nation of immigrants."

Latinos now represent 30 million of the approximately 72 million Catholics in this country. Many are immigrants, and their steady influx is the major contributor to the steady growth of membership in the American church.

"The Hispanic face of the church is the original face of the church in this country," Gomez said.

"Many Americans think American history starts in the 1600s in places like Plymouth Rock and Philadelphia," he said. "But long before that, Catholic missionaries were already evangelizing in Florida, Texas, California, and New Mexico. That's something to think about.

"The ethnic base of the church is changing its center of gravity, from East to West, North to South. . . . If you want to understand the church, you need to be looking in the Southwest and West, and also in every single Hispanic household all over the U.S.," Gomez said.