An effort to remove the statue of saint-to-be Father Junipero Serra from the U.S. Capitol has been set aside for the time being.
A statue of the Franciscan missionary, credited for bringing Christianity to California and nearby regions, has stood in the U.S. Capitol since 1931.
However, a proposal in California’s state legislature would have removed the statue of Father Serra and replaced it with one of late astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman to travel to space.
Ms. Ride would also be the first known gay person in the National Statuary Hall Collection, said California State Sen. Ricardo Lara, the openly gay lawmaker who proposed the statue switch.
According to the Los Angeles Times, a vote on the proposal was postponed due to the timing of Pope Francis’ September trip to the United States, where he will formally declare Father Serra a saint.
Mr. Lara has requested that his proposal to remove the statue be re-considered at a later date. The resolution to remove the statue already passed the state senate by a 22-10 vote.
State legislatures decide which two statues will represent their state at the U.S. Capitol. California’s other statue is of President Ronald Reagan, a former California governor.
Father Serra’s statue has him cradling a church in his left arm and holding a cross aloft in his outstretched right arm. The website of the Architect of the Capitol, which maintains the statue, describes Father Serra as “one of the most important Spanish missionaries in the New World.”
Several California lawmakers objected to the proposal to remove the Serra statue, questioning the message that it would send.
“Debating such a bill just before the pope’s visit would have conveyed a terrible message to him and millions of Catholics around the world, contradicting California’s reputation as a tolerant and welcoming place for all people,” California Assemblyman William P. Brough and state Sen. Patricia Bates said, according to the Catholic League.
The Catholic League said opposition to the statue rises out of “misunderstandings” about the priest’s work. Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, wrote a booklet, “The Noble Legacy of Fr. Serra,” to clarify the record.
Some activist groups have attacked Father Serra as a symbol of European colonialism and characterized his missions as using forced labor of Native Americans.
Campaign to keep statue
Father Serra is said to have played a leading role in California history, helping to convert thousands of native Californians to Christianity and teaching them new technologies. The 18th century priest founded many of the missions that would go on to become the centers of major California cities.
In a May 2 homily, Francis called Father Serra “one of the founding fathers of the United States, a saintly example of the Church’s universality, and special patron of the Hispanic people of the country.”
Francis is scheduled to canonize Father Serra Sept. 23 during his visit to the District.
The priest was beatified Sept. 25, 1988, by Saint John Paul II.
The proposal to remove the statue of the soon-to-be saint was shelved following a heavy campaign to save it. A Spanish-language website, “Salvemos a Serra,” or “Let’s Save Serra,” had called on Californians to write their legislators in opposition to the resolution.
“U.S. Hispanics need your support to maintain the presence of our first saint in the U.S. Capitol,” the website said.
“Salvemos a Serra” had also asked supporters of Father Serra to sign English- and Spanish-language petitions on the website CitizenGo.org. More than 47,000 did so.
The petitions were posted by Alejandro Bermudez, executive director of Catholic News Agency
“In a state that counts Hispanics as its largest ethnic group, California’s elected leaders are about to banish the first and one of the only two Hispanics from statuary hall,” Mr. Bermudez said in a May 22 essay at the Latino media website NewsTaco.
“To add insult to injury, they plan to go on the record with this just in time to welcome the first Latin American pope in history to the United States,” he added. “It’s quite the insult to the pope, who will visit the Capitol and canonize Serra during his September visit — making him the first saint to be named by a pope on American soil.
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