Pope Francis, Fr. Serra And My Comment On An ICTMN Article


by Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer



On April 6, 2015, Indian Country Today Media Network (ICTMN), the world's largest Indian/Native news source, posted a comment of mine on an article entitled The Pioneer Mother Statue and the 'Conquering Peace.'

The article is by Steven Newcomb (Shawnee, Lenape), an ICTMN columnist who is internationally renowned for writing cutting-edge articles on how to rectify injustices caused by the historic - Doctrine of Christian Discovery based - Christian paradigm of domination. Mr. Newcomb is also renowned for his book, Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery. This topic is internationally important. The UN, Vatican and World Council of Churches are involved with this issue. My 282 word comment is the only ICTMN comment posted on the article.

In the first part of his article, Newcomb writes about two commemorative bronze statues at the University of Oregon, The Pioneer Mother and The Pioneer. He expresses his opposition to what the message behind these statues stand for. "Pioneers are the colonizers of a given geographical area which is new to them. That geographical area is new to the invading and colonizing society which expands its control by forcibly imposing its own foreign cultural pattern on the nations existing in there. This is commonly termed the process of 'civilization.'"

Newcomb stated that during The Pioneer statue dedication, R. A. Booth of Eugene delivered a talk entitled, "The Outlook from the End of the Trail," in which he said: "Today we are not much interested in the cause that determined the course of empire..." Newcomb wrote: "Thus did Booth confirm that it was the American empire that the Oregon Trail was expanding."

Newcomb stated that Booth wrote: "These were the Oregon Pioneers, and it was they and their influence and their children that planted here...a loyalty to country and to unselfish devotion to human interests that has been so frequently expressed. I am willing that these discoverers may be listed among the Saints."

In the last section of his article, Newcomb wrote: "Colonizers listed among the Saints. How interesting, then, that Pope Francis and the Vatican are about to list the name of Junipero Serra, a Catholic colonizer, among the Catholic saints. The pope is doing so in the name of evangelistic battle against heathendom and in celebration of the westward course of the Christian empire (imperii christiani).

"Pope Francis and the Holy See are giving sainthood to Serra for being among the vanguard who worked at chaining Indian lands for the Roman Catholic Spanish Empire by creating a 'chain' of missions that could be used for reducing the heathen barbarous nations ('barbarae nationes'). Serra, on behalf of the Holy See, marched forward in the name of a Catholic Pioneer Mother, the Mother Mary, 'La Conquistadora.' Today, in 2015, the pope and the Vatican are celebrating Serra's deadly legacy in an effort to reinvigorate their imperial, evangelical enterprise."

My ICTMN comment reads:

On his September visit to Washington, D.C., Pope Francis plans to canonize Fr. Junipero Serra, the Spanish Franciscan whom John Paul II beatified in 1988, who converted thousands of Indians in California in the 18th century, when it still belonged to Mexico. ...Since 1931, Fr. Serra's statue has stood in the U.S. Capitol in a place set aside for the State of California. ....With the pope coming to canonize Fr. Serra, "the war drums have begun." It is said the priest accompanied Spanish soldiers who brutalized the Indians, and Fr. Serra helped to eradicate their religion and culture, replacing it with his own. ....Now a move is afoot to remove Fr. Serra's statue. ....State Sen. Ricardo Lara, a Los Angeles Democrat, wants to replace the bronze statue of Serra with a monument honoring Sally Ride, the nation's first female astronaut. ...And Saint Louis University, a Jesuit university, recently removed a statue of Fr. Pierre-Jean De Smet, a mid-19th century Christian missionary to Indians, from the front of Fusz Hall, where it had stood for 60 years. .....The statue depicts Fr. De Smet holding aloft a crucifix as he ministers to two American Indians who are not on the same level as De Smet, he is elevated to a higher position. Because De Smelt is in an elevated position holding a cross above his head, its message is one of white Christian supremacy. ....The sculpture has been considered "culturally unsensitive." Senior Ryan McKinley, a member of the faculty, said: "The statue of De Smet depicts a history of colonialism, imperialism, racism and of Christian and white supremacy." America is beginning to repent of its evil supremacy sins. America's Christian paradigm of domination over Indian peoples is coming to an end.