Indian historians and authors blame Father Serra for the suppression of their culture and the premature deaths at the missions of thousands of their ancestors.
From 1769 to 1835, 90,000 Indians were baptized along the West Coast. Once baptized, they were not allowed to leave the missions, and those who did escape were rounded up by soldiers and returned.
Canonizing “the leader of the disastrous, genocidal California mission system is a way that the church further legitimizes the pain and suffering of Ohlone and countless other California Indians,” says Ohlone leader Vincent Medina.
From New York Times
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