Angelus News | August 2-9, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 27

NANCY WIECHEC/CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
DINA MOORE BOWDEN VIA GREGORY ORFALEA
the population estimate on contact of
225,000.
On several occasions, Serra referred to
the California Indians being “in their
own country.” He almost never referred
to Indians as “barbaros” (“barbarians”),
as others did, but rather “indios,” “gentiles,”
or “pobres.”
In fact, Serra directly suggested that
Spain remove itself from California
if soldier depredations continued. If
the better side of Christianity was not
shown the Indians on a daily basis,
he said, “what business have we … in
such a place?”
Were the missions slavery?
The question arises: Were the missions
slavery? It’s a serious claim, but
it is false. No one was forced into the
missions.
This is made clear by the testimony
of Father Pedro Font, diarist of the
second settler expedition into Upper
California, who observed, “The
method of which the fathers observe in
the conversion [of the Indians] is not
to oblige anyone to become Christian,
admitting only those who voluntarily
offer themselves for baptism.” Most
historians ratify this.
There was, however, a catch. Once
one entered the mission he or she
could not leave without permission.
The missions were a community on
a frontier and Indian labor, as well as
Spanish labor, were necessities for a
community’s survival.
We might ponder how many who
came into the mission system understood
this quid pro quo, but there’s
little doubt most fell to the task of
contributing their labor for the food,
clothes, living quarters, and other items
they were given.
Douglas Monroy, a Hispanic-American
historian and author of “The Borders
Within,” calls this “the communitarian
spirit,” and he notes that working
for the common good was not all that
different from the ethic of the Indian
village. Sandos calls the mission Indian
status “spiritual debt peonage,” though
the Indians were given concrete things,
not just spiritual practices.
Most took “leave” to their home
villages for weeks or months. Some,
like the Luiseno of Mission San Luis
Rey, were already in their villages and
commuting to mission work.
There is one undeniable, hard, and
premeditated thing to admit about the
missions: the use of the flog for corporal
punishment for theft, assault, concubinage,
and desertion. That Spanish
civilians and soldiers got the same
treatment is no comfort for those of us
who see such a thing as abhorrent.
The bell tower of St. Peter’s, Serra’s childhood parish church, in Petra, Mallorca (left) and bells at
Mission San Juan Capistrano (right).
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
However, a few things need to be said
about this practice. First, whippings for
discipline were common in the 18th
century. Even schoolboys at Eton in
England were caned for infractions,
and their parents paid a fee for it to the
school.
Second, many tribes made prisoners
of war run a gauntlet of beatings, so
such a thing was not entirely strange.
Third, as Father Francis Guest has
written, the Indians were considered
children by the padres, and as such
the flogging was cut in half (12 strokes
at most). Guest also notes that the
punishment was not to be given in
anger and if it were, those who did so
had committed a grave sin and were
subject to punishment themselves.
Serra himself was clearly conflicted
about the practice: “I am willing to admit
that in the infliction of punishment
we are now discussing, there may have
been inequities and excesses on the
part of some Fathers and that we are all
exposed to err in that record,” he wrote.
About this matter, I wrote in my biography
of Serra, “Journey to the Sun:
Junípero Serra’s Dream and the Founding
of California” (Scribner, 2014),
in no uncertain terms: “It was cruel,
a violation of the Fifth Commandment;
Christ accepted the Roman
soldier’s whipping his body, but he
certainly didn’t recommend it. Serra’s
and Lasuen’s arguments for flogging
ultimately ring hollow. They should
have had the wisdom and foresight to
stop it.”
Ultimately, before the mission period
was over, the flogging was outlawed in
1833. Father Francisco Diego at Mission
Santa Clara applauded that “such
punishment as revolts my soul is being
abolished.”
If this were the main story of Serra
and the missions, I would say tear
down the bells. But it isn’t, not by a
long shot.
In his landmark apology to the native
peoples of the Americas in Bolivia in
2015, Pope Francis said, “Where there
was sin — and there was plenty of
sin — there was also abundant grace
increased by the men and women who
defended indigenous peoples.”
As I have indicated, Serra tirelessly defended
the indigenous people against
those who talked as if they were sub-
August 2-9, 2019 • ANGELUS • 13