St Junipero Serra statue toppled in San Francisco

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People mistakenly think that Junipero Serra was a racist that mistreated local Indian tribes. Nevermid the fact the tribe he helped convert is still Catholic…
 
Soon they’ll be tearing down statues of other saints and Christian figures.
 
StudentMI said:
Soon they’ll be tearing down statues of other saints and Christian figures.
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Not on private land. Public parks and public spaces are another matter.

Put Father Serra on Catholic-owned grounds, preferably with security. Or better yet in a shrine or museum. I’m surprised he and Francis Scott Key lasted this long in that park.

Sooner or later one of these statues is gonna fall on one of these “activists”. They’ll probably sue the city when that happens.
C.Ray said:
If anyone thought the new iconoclasm was limited to statues of people we don’t approve of, here is something to think carefully about.
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This is nothing new. People have been wrecking and defacing Fr Serra statues for many years.
 
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StudentMI said:
If you think they’ll observe the private ownership of such things…
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There’s statues on private church grounds everywhere. If they’re not accessible, they are generally left alone.
Also, they’re more in danger from drug addicts looking for scrap metal money than from activists.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
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StudentMI:
If you think they’ll observe the private ownership of such things…
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There’s statues on private church grounds everywhere. If they’re not accessible, they are generally left alone.
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If the church land is visible to the public, they won’t hesitate to take it down. In the riots most vandalism was on private property.
 
There are statues of Serra at shrines and missions. When defaced, they are replaced and security stepped up.

We’re not going to run out of statues. Even if we did, we don’t need them to pray to Fr Serra. Give it 100 years and people will either have a different view or not care any more.
 
commenter said:
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Tis_Bearself:
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StudentMI:
If you think they’ll observe the private ownership of such things…
Click to expand...
There’s statues on private church grounds everywhere. If they’re not accessible, they are generally left alone.
Click to expand...
If the church land is visible to the public, they won’t hesitate to take it down. In the riots most vandalism was on private property.
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Precisely. Recall how St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City was defaced a couple of weeks ago.
 
They don’t just object to past evangelism but to present evangelism. It is Christianity itself that is the problem.

The only thing more shocking than the vandals is the passivity of bishops, priests, laity.
 
Not everyone sees the mission system of California as a benevolent institution, including the descendants of the Indians who were, on the whole, forced into them and coercively or forcible converted.

Just like with Christopher Columbus, it didn’t work out equally well for all involved, and it behooves us to listen to the voices of those for whom these statues don’t represent the same sort of associations they might for others.

Key may have written the national Anthem, but he also owned slaves so, yeah, “the land of the free” rings hollow to some who know who wrote those lines. Only some were free.
C.Ray said:
was limited to statues of people we don’t approve of
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Who’s “we”? You may think you speak for people you do not.
 
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It is not surprising at all. This is communism, it is textbook stuff here folks. This why Catholics in the past took Communism seriously and squashed it like a bug before it could get a footing. We have tried to “coexist”. The Catholic Church does not coexist with Communism. Communism must be destroyed.
 
adamhovey1988 said:
People mistakenly think that Junipero Serra was a racist that mistreated local Indian tribes. Nevermid the fact the tribe he helped convert is still Catholic…
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This is true, and he did have Native American support for his canonization.

However, I think it is the larger picture of what the mission system represented than Serra specifically that’s at issue at this time.

It’s unfortunate, and some statues (like Grant) are getting caught up in it too. I’m sure some of it is out of ignorance, and crowd frenzy (there’s a statue it must be bad!!) but cooler heads will prevail down the road.

What I don’t think should be lost is the source of this is the largely impotent rage fueling voiceless people. All people of good will, Catholics certainly, simply must listen to what our brown and black brothers and sisters are saying instead of running around yelling “communist, liberal plot”.
 
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What about Grant’s statue? They took his down as well…

Edited to say: apologies, I didn’t see that you covered the Grant statue in your reply to Adam’s post before I posted.
 
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They took down a Grant statue?! :woman_facepalming:t2: I don’t think the North would have won the Civil War without Grant… 🤯
 
1ke said:
All people of good will, Catholics certainly, simply must listen to what our brown and black brothers and sisters are saying instead of running around yelling “communist, liberal plot”.
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When I look at the press coverage, the people involved seem to be predominantly young white people. I’m not sure that describing this community as voiceless people with impotent rage applies well.
 
We’ve been “listening” to people like Al Sharpton tell us how racist we are for years. We’ve had a black president (who harmed race relations IMHO) for goodness sake. The silent majority of Americans have gotten tired of being told how racist we are, as stores are ransacked, statues torn down, and everything not nailed down is stolen by looters.
 
I stopped paying attention to Sharpton after I read about the Tawana Brawley case.
 
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