Junipero Serra, fondateur des missions en Californie, n'était pas un saint.

Je me suis d'abord intéressé à cet article parce que j'ai visité deux des missions fondées par le père Serra, celles de Carmel et de San Francisco (Mission Dolores). La semaine dernière le pape François annonçait son intention de reconnaître Serra comme un saint, mais tous ne sont pas en accord et la christianisation imposée aux Premières Nations est au coeur du débat.

 "Prominent Native Americans see Father Serra as far from saintly. Their reaction is as visceral as a dispute over occupied territory in the Middle East. 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.%% “I had high hopes for this pope, who has been making some very pro-social-justice statements,” said Deborah A. Miranda, an Ohlone Costanoan Esselen Indian and an American literature professor at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va.

“Serra did not just bring us Christianity. He imposed it, giving us no choice in the matter. He did incalculable damage to a whole culture,” Ms. Miranda, the author of “Bad Indians,” said of her ancestors and what she called “the mission mythology.”

“If he is elevated to sainthood,” said Nicole Lim, the executive director of the California Indian Museum and Cultural Center in Santa Rosa, “then he should be held responsible for the brutal and deadly treatment of native people.” Ms. Lim, a Pomo Indian, runs a website for students that she said aimed to correct the misinformation."

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/22/us/to-some-indians-in-california-father-serra-is-far-from-a-saint.html?ref=us