Last month, Val (Valentin) Lopez, the chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, traveled to the United Nations in New York City. The purpose of his trip was to voice opposition to Father Junipero Serra’s canonization, an event scheduled to take place in September when Pope Francis visits Washington, D.C.
In January, Francis announced that Serra, the founder of California’s mission system, would be made a saint. In response, Lopez and his tribe wrote an open letter to the pontiff in February expressing their “disbelief and objection” to his decision.
Following the format of two, previous letters written to Francis, the open letter introduced the Amah Mutsun as the “historic and continuous tribe…of the documented descendants of the indigenous peoples taken to” the San Juan Bautista and Santa Cruz missions.
The letter then chronicled the plight of their mission ancestors, adding that the wounds inflicted by the Spanish missionaries festered and impacted future generations of the tribe, resulting in “historic trauma.”
At the letter’s conclusion, the tribe stated that canonizing Serra would reverse efforts by the Church to atone for its treatment of native peoples, including an apology issued by the late pope John Paul II and, most recently, a 2012 Mass of Reconciliation held at Mission San Juan Bautista and presided by the Bishop of the Monterey Archdiocese, Richard Garcia.
In March, Lopez accompanied author Elias Castillo to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, where Castillo spoke about his book, “Cross of Thorns: The Enslavement of California’s Indians by the Spanish Missions,” while Lopez provided the indigenous perspective to Castillo’s work.
Seated in the audience was Antonio Gonzalez, the director of the AIM-West, an extension of the American Indian Movement that seeks to “to raise awareness on issues that concern or impact…Indians of the Americas on a daily basis” while addressing “issues implicit in international laws and standards related to human rights,” according to the organization’s website.
In a phone interview, Lopez explained that Gonzalez approached him after the presentation and extended an invitation to speak at the U.N. on behalf of AIM-West of which Lopez responded with an emphatic, “Yes.”
Lopez arrived in New York on April 17, days before the opening of the fourteenth session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the body before which he would eventually appear.
The Permanent Forum meets annually, during which time indigenous groups of U.N. member states and NGOs representing indigenous peoples are provided a two-week window of opportunity to speak before the body on a myriad of indigenous issues, ranging from economic development to treaty law.
A day prior to Lopez’s scheduled Permanent Forum appearance, he and the AIM-West delegation meet privately with Monsignor Joseph Grech, the Second Secretary to the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See.
Representing the Vatican, the purpose of the Holy See Mission—as its official status is referred to—is to “advance freedom of religion and respect for the sanctity of all human life…and thus all aspects of authentic human development,” within the framework of the U.N., according to its website.
The monsignor wrote by email that his responsibilities as Second Secretary, include following the “issues…as well as all the questions related to indigenous peoples.” He added that the meeting with Lopez and the delegation, held at the offices of the Holy See Mission, had been scheduled for months.
Lopez explained that meeting Msgr. Grech was an opportunity to reach the ears of the Vatican in hopes that Francis would reverse his decision to canonize Serra.
Scheduled for 30 minutes, the meeting—described by both parties as positive— lasted an hour, during which time the delegation spoke about the injustices suffered by California’s mission indians, the lasting impact of that injustice, and the moral responsibility Francis has in not bestowing the title of saint on Serra.
Regarding the information shared by Lopez and referenced in Castillo’s book, Msgr. Grech stated that he had a “general awareness of the history of Native American Indians in the California missions, but…was unaware of some of the graphic and heartbreaking examples he [Lopez] described.” Though Msgr. Grech stated that his “initial assessment” of “Cross of Thorns,” a gift from the delegation, “does not give the whole picture of” California’s mission system.
At the meeting’s conclusion, Lopez received a guarantee that the next letter written to the pope would be delivered through the Holy See Mission.
Having presented his case to the Vatican’s representative, Lopez walked into the Permanent Forum the next day, Thursday, April 23, prepared to voice his opposition to Serra’s canonization to the world.
Introduced by the session’s chair, Lopez made a salutatory greeting in native Amah Mutsun and then for the next several minutes described his ancestors’ sufferings under the mission system—an institution today’s Amah Mutsun claim was directly shaped by Serra’s nefarious hands.
While reading his statement, Lopez’s voice cracked, an indication of the emotional resonance associated with the occasion. “This was the first time on a world stage that the voices of our ancestors were ever heard,” Lopez said by phone.
In closing, he called upon the international community to join the his tribe “in opposing the canonization of Junipero Serra, on Sept. 23, when the Pope arrives in the United States .” [Click here to watch Lopez’s speech]
An applause followed and Lopez was congratulated by several people after his speech, including Katherine M. Ball, the legal advisor of the Holy See Mission. Ball offered to met privately with the AIW-West delegation.
Their conversation addressed many of the same topics covered with Msgr. Grech. An email forwarded through the Holy See Mission to reach Ball for comment was not responded to at the time of publication, though she agreed to “doubly make sure” that Francis receives the Amah Mutsun’s next letter, according to Lopez.
Opposing the canonization of Serra doesn’t mean the Amah Mutsun is in an ideological war with the Church, Lopez explained. The tribe includes several tribal members who are devout Roman Catholics, a point iterated in the tribe’s open letter, Lopez’s dialogue with the Holy See Mission, and in his U.N. speech.
The Vatican recently announced that Francis had finalized plans to canonize Serra. Lopez believes that there’s still time to change the pope’s mind, and he’s willing to travel to Rome to do it.
“What I would hate to happen is that us [the Amah Mutsun] always have the doubt that he [Francis] was never told of our true history and that’s why he went forward with the canonization versus he knew about our history and just didn’t care,” said Lopez.