Washington, DC Sept 2015

[The Queen]

All right. I'll back off. I admit my opinion is strongly informed by my general distaste for 1) conquerors and 2) religion and the imposition thereof, but I do have to ask--what miracle did he supposedly perform?

Here's an outtake from an article I found:

"Los Angeles archbishop Jose Gomez defended Serra’s canonization, asserting that the priest “came to this New World with a burning love for the land and its people, (with) genuine respect for the indigenous people and their ways and claiming that critics of Serra had “distorted” his record. He added that although the canonization “has opened old wounds and revived bitter memories about the treatment of Native Americans,” the charges leveled at Serra “can be traced back to the anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic propaganda (that) prevents us from making an honest appraisal of Father Serra and America’s religious beginnings.” Gomez allowed that the “world of (Serra’s) times still considered native peoples, along with African Americans, to be less than full human,” but he had “come to the conclusion that Father Serra should be remembered as one of the great pioneers of human rights in the Americas.”

In order to be canonized, a candidate must have performed two “miracles.” The first ascribed to Serra was his healing of a lupus patient who had prayed to him. Galvan said the pope aided Serra’s cause by declaring Serra’s life’s work to be the second miracle."

My father-in-law has been extremely dedicated to service (over 35 years, I believe) as a member (and past president) of the USA Council of Serra Society, with a mission to promote vocations in the Catholic Church. This past week was very important to him. He shouldn't be traveling at all, but Imdoubt anything would,have kept him from DC and that event this past week.

Frankly (pun intended), I think the real Saint in all of this is Greg. He survived this experience without killing anyone. That's most definitely miraculous.