Friday 25 September 2015

Pope Francis To Perform Unbiblical Sacrifice of the Mass Many Times During NYC Visit

  Red news, blue news, and the Pope

Pope Francis To Perform Unbiblical Sacrifice of the Mass Many Times During NYC Visit 

The Vatican has just announced the schedule for the Pope’s visit to the USA in September. His trip includes visits to the Marian shrines, which adulate the Roman Catholic version of Mary, as well as several different Roman Catholic Masses throughout the region. The Pope will perform his unbiblical sacrifice of the Mass at Cardinal Dolan’s St Patrick’s Cathedral, and On Friday night September 25, 2015, the Pope will perform the sacrifice of the Mass, at Madison Square Garden. Rome believes that their Catholic Mass will SATISFY the justice of God, for sins committed against him. If you disagree with the Catholic teaching on the Mass, and the Transubstantiation of their Catholic Eucharist, then you are under one of the curses of the Roman Catholic Church.
The Roman Catholic church has not changed at all. They still hold fast to the teachings of the Council of Trent which has over 100 anathemas (curses) against people who do not believe their false teachings! The Roman Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan, of New York’s famous St Patricks Cathedral, defended the Council of Trent on his RADIO PODCAST of April 30, 2015. Most people do not know that the council of Vatican II also defended the Council of Trent, with all of it’s curses! It would be rather humorous if they started reading off all of those curses, one by one, at the next UNITY meeting with the cultish system of Rome! In our modern day we have major “Christian” leaders joining hands with people such as Cardinal Dolan as if they were all brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ! Here is a link to a VIDEO where Pastor A.R. Bernard of the huge Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn N.Y, is preaching at Cardinal Dolan’s St Patricks Cathedral on the subject of Christian Unity! Folks it is getting scary out there! Pastor A.R. Bernard is also the President of the Council of Churches in NYC. There is a huge elephant in the room, decked out in Roman Catholic vestments, and few will preach against it. The apostasy that was prophesied in the Bible by the Jewish apostle Paul, is happening right before our very eyes!
You can also expect to see multitudes of the deceived “Christian” religious leaders surrounding the Pope on his visit here, especially down at the Ground Zero event. Now would be a good time to question your Christian pastors, and your Christian leaders, as to where they stand regarding the Roman Catholic system. Do they believe that the church of Rome is a Christian denomination, or a false religious system or a cult? Many of the so called “Christian” leaders would not be able to give you a straight answer, even if you were to tape a ruler to their tongue. Why? Because they have allowed themselves to be deceived, and bewitched by the “doctrines of devils” (1 Timothy 4:1) which Paul warned us about. The “Christian” pastors and leaders have been TRAINED by the DEVIL without even realizing it. They are in a demonic trance, and they have led multitudes of Christians down a dark and evil path, for which they will give an account one day. It is most unfortunate that many Christians have been bamboozled by such leaders, because they have trusted them with everything. The only way out for those Christians is to truly study the word of God for themselves like the people of Berea did, (Acts 17:11) and to pray to the Lord for direction.
I recently watched a VIDEO where well known Pastor, and author Rick Warren, referred to  the Roman Catholic Pope Francis as “our Pope” which is simply incredible. If Pope Francis is the Pope to Rick Warren, then that would make Rick Warren a Roman Catholic would it not? If Rick Warren is promoting the Pope and his false doctrines can he be truly SAVED? Leaders such as Rick Warren, James Robison, Billy Graham, Franklin Graham and tons of others are working with the same church of Rome that the TRUE Christian martyrs stood against! In other words, the Roman Catholic church is still teaching the very same doctrines regarding the Mass, Purgatory, the Papacy, infant baptism, the seven sacraments as they did back then! You can read about the thousands of incredible tortures, and murders, by the church of Rome against Christians, in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.  Folks it is downright scary that so few Pastors ever mention this in the modern day church!
You do not have to dig deep to find that the Roman Catholic church preaches a FALSE gospel. It does not matter what you have been told concerning the Roman Catholic church by so called “Christian” leaders. The only thing that matters is whether the Roman Catholic church is preaching the soul saving gospel which is found in the scriptures. When you search the scriptures, you will NOT find anything that remotely resembles their “sacrifice of the Mass” for the living and the dead. I speak as a former Roman Catholic who was saved out of that FALSE and DEMONIC system, and I implore you to ignore he call for “unity” that comes forth from Rome, and other “popish” ministries which disguise themselves as Christians. When you or your church comes into unity with a church which preaches a false gospel, and other “doctrines of devils” you are falling right into the demonic headlock of the Devil himself. You are responsible to know these things for yourself. 
Keep that in mind as you read the rest of this article, and PRAY for the Lord Jesus Christ to open your spiritual eyes, through the POWER of the Holy Spirit.
Does the Roman Catholic Mass satisfy the justice of God, or did Jesus Christ  satisfy the justice of God on the cross? Read this article and be AMAZED at the audacity of the Roman Catholic Church to teach what they do, concerning their Catholic Mass!
When we talk about deception, we are talking about being deceived, and that is why I speak out against the deception of the Roman Catholic Church and their false teachings. Many Catholics complain about their teachings being misrepresented, so I will be quoting from their own Roman Catholic Catechism and then compare it to the scriptures (Bible) to show you that their Mass is a totally false teaching. Why do I speak out against the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Mass? As a former Roman Catholic I speak out for the following reasons:
1] The Mass is unbiblical.
2] The Mass is a false doctrine propagated by a false church.
3] Many Evangelical Christian “leaders” have promoted unity with Roman Catholicism (thereby endorsing their false gospel, Galatians 1:8,9).
The Bible warns us about seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.
Now the SPIRIT speaketh expressly, that in the LATTER TIMES some shall DEPART from the FAITH, giving heed to SEDUCING spirits, and DOCTRINES of DEVILS; (1 Timothy 4:1)
The Roman Catholic Mass is CLEARLY a DOCTRINE of DEVILS.
The Bible tells us that we, as Christians, should contend for the faith.
” . . . ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” (Jude 1:3)

(A) What Is The Mass? (According To Rome)
Here I will use Roman Catholic teaching from the New Saint Joseph Catechism, that bears the RC Imprimatur, which signifies that the doctrine within the Catechism has been approved by the Roman Catholic Church.
The New Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism
The New Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism
 dsc01305
As you can see, the Mass is referred to as a SACRIFICE, in which CHRIST offers Himself to God, in an UNBLOODY MANNER. Folks, that is absolute heresy. The Bible makes it clear that it is the BLOOD that makes an atonement for the soul!
For the LIFE of the FLESH is in the BLOOD: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an ATONEMENT for your SOULS: for it is the BLOOD that maketh an ATONEMENT for the SOUL. (Leviticus 17:11)
(B) The Mass Is The Perfect Sacrifice Continued
Right before Jesus died and gave His last breath He cried out ” . . . IT IS FINISHED . . .” [John 19:30]  The perfect sacrifice has been perfectly FINISHED, and it need NOT  be OFFERED up on a daily basis on the ALTARS of Roman Catholic Churches throughout the world!
(C) Purposes Of The Mass
Purposes Of The Roman Catholic Mass
Purposes Of The Roman Catholic Mass
If you take a look at the FOURTH ITEM on the list, you will see that one of the PURPOSES of the Mass is to SATISFY the justice of God, for the SINS committed against HIM. That is why you will find the Roman Catholic Mass being said every day, without fail, in Catholic churches throughout the world. Every single day they are teaching people that their Roman Catholic Priest is satisfying the justice of God, for THEIR sins, while they should be telling people that Jesus Christ PAID the price in FULL already!
I hope that you understand that the Roman Catholic church is teaching pure HERESY. The Bible tells us that the justice of God was satisfied when Jesus Christ died on the cross, almost two thousand years ago. The Bible lets each and every SINNER (myself included) and every other person in the world know that they can be JUSTIFIED by the BLOOD that Jesus Christ shed for them!
The apostle Paul, a former  persecutor and murderer of Christians, wrote the following, and it ended up in the Bible for a reason:
For when we were yet without strength, in due time CHRIST died for the UNGODLY. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But GOD commendeth his LOVE toward US, in that, while WE were yet SINNERS, CHRIST DIED FOR US. Much more then, being NOW JUSTIFIED by HIS BLOOD, we shall be SAVED from WRATH through HIM. For if, when we were enemies, we were RECONCILED to GOD by the DEATH of his SON, much more, being RECONCILED, we shall be SAVED by HIS LIFE. (Romans 5:6-10)
The greatest NEWS in the world is that CHRIST died for the UNGODLY, and the motive behind the DEATH of the Son of God was GOD’S PURE UNADULTERATED LOVE TOWARD MANKIND! Any person in the world, no matter what color, race, male, female, rich or poor has the opportunity to receive SALVATION through Jesus Christ, and be JUSTIFIED by His BLOOD, before God. Why? Because every single one of us fits very comfortably into the category of UNGODLY! My Bible tells me that I have been RECONCILED back to God already, through FAITH in Jesus Christ, and I have NO NEED for a Roman Catholic Mass to be offered for me.

(D) Mass Cards

Mass cards can be obtained, for a donation, to have a Catholic Mass offered for a person living or DEAD!
dsc01317
In the illustration above, you can see that a donation of $5 will allow a person to have one Catholic Mass offered for them, and a donation of $45 will allow  nine separate Masses to be offered for the DECEASED (DEAD) person. The purpose of the Catholic Mass for the DEAD person is for the repose (rest) of their soul. The Catholic Church teaches about a place called Purgatory, a place where the soul will remain for an undetermined amount of time before they go to Heaven. The Mass card is for their benefit, and it can shorten their time in Purgatory! Folks, there is no such place called Purgatory, and there is NO MENTION of it in the scriptures (Bible)! Jesus Christ preached about HEAVEN and HELL, and he said that a person was either SAVED or DAMNED, with no mention of Purgatory at all!
In the illustration below, you can see that a person can have seven Catholic Masses offered up for them every single day, and they can also share in the “good works” of others.
dsc01316
The Bible tells us that salvation cannot be earned by “good works” lest any man boast.
For by GRACE are ye SAVED through FAITH; and that not of yourselves: it is the GIFT OF GOD: NOT OF WORKS, lest any man should BOAST. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
That is why I speak out against the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church.
For there is NO DIFFERENCE between the JEW and the Greek (Gentile): for the same LORD over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For WHOSOEVER shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be SAVED. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not BELIEVED? and how shall they BELIEVE in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a PREACHER? And how shall they PREACH, except they be sent? as it is written, How BEAUTIFUL are the feet of them that PREACH the GOSPEL of PEACE, and bring GLAD TIDINGS of good things! (Romans 10:12-15)

Vicar of Christ or Vicar of Lucifer: No trace of Jesus in Pope’s speech to the US Congress

 Pope9

No trace of Jesus in Pope’s speech

http://ivarfjeld.com/2015/09/24/no-trace-of-jesus-in-popes-speech/

It might have been a great opportunity. But in his address to the US Congress, the Pope did not mention “Jesus”, Neither did he use the therm “Christ” nor the Messiah.
The Pope was hailed by the US Congress, basically saying close to nothing.
The Pope was hailed by the US Congress, basically saying close to nothing.
If you believe the Pope represent the Messiah, maybe its time to open your eyes to truth.  In his speech to the US Congressmen, the head of the Vatican did not mentioned Jesus. Not even once. Neither did he use the term “Christ”, nor the “Messiah”.  The “holly see” used the term “God” nine times, and in the end he uttered “God bless America”. 

People of all faiths could have put their signature to such a message.
There was basically not much worth reflection on, in the pontiffs address to the political leaders of the USA. Only the Popes defense of massmigration of Muslims from Syria, should be able to upset even religious Roman Catholics.

Under my signature, you find full text of the Popes address:
Written by Ivar

Mr. Speaker,
Honorable Members of Congress,

Dear Friends,
I am most grateful for your invitation to address this Joint Session of Congress in “the land of the free and the home of the brave”. I would like to think that the reason for this is that I too am a son of this great continent, from which we have all received so much and toward which we share a common responsibility.
Each son or daughter of a given country has a mission, a personal and social responsibility. Your own responsibility as members of Congress is to enable this country, by your legislative activity, to grow as a nation.

You are the face of its people, their representatives. You are called to defend and preserve the dignity of your fellow citizens in the tireless and demanding pursuit of the common good, for this is the chief aim of all politics. A political society endures when it seeks, as a vocation, to satisfy common needs by stimulating the growth of all its members, especially those in situations of greater vulnerability or risk. Legislative activity is always based on care for the people. To this you have been invited, called and convened by those who elected you.

Yours is a work which makes me reflect in two ways on the figure of Moses. On the one hand, the patriarch and lawgiver of the people of Israel symbolizes the need of peoples to keep alive their sense of unity by means of just legislation. On the other, the figure of Moses leads us directly to God and thus to the transcendent dignity of the human being. (APPLAUSE)

Moses provides us with a good synthesis of your work: you are asked to protect, by means of the law, the image and likeness fashioned by God on every human face.

Today I would like not only to address you, but through you the entire people of the United States. Here, together with their representatives, I would like to take this opportunity to dialogue with the many thousands of men and women who strive each day to do an honest day’s work, to bring home their daily bread, to save money and –one step at a time – to build a better life for their families. These are men and women who are not concerned simply with paying their taxes, but in their own quiet way sustain the life of society. (APPLAUSE)

They generate solidarity by their actions, and they create organizations which offer a helping hand to those most in need.

I would also like to enter into dialogue with the many elderly persons who are a storehouse of wisdom forged by experience, and who seek in many ways, especially through volunteer work, to share their stories and their insights. I know that many of them are retired, but still active; they keep working to build up this land. I also want to dialogue with all those young people who are working to realize their great and noble aspirations, who are not led astray by facile proposals, and who face difficult situations, often as a result of immaturity on the part of many adults. I wish to dialogue with all of you, and I would like to do so through the historical memory of your people.

My visit takes place at a time when men and women of goodwill are marking the anniversaries of several great Americans. The complexities of history and the reality of human weakness notwithstanding, these men and women, for all their many differences and limitations, were able by hard work and self-sacrifice – some at the cost of their lives – to build a better future. They shaped fundamental values which will endure forever in the spirit of the American people. A people with this spirit can live through many crises, tensions and conflicts, while always finding the resources to move forward, and to do so with dignity. These men and women offer us a way of seeing and interpreting reality. In honoring their memory, we are inspired, even amid conflicts, and in the here and now of each day, to draw upon our deepest cultural reserves.
I would like to mention four of these Americans: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton. (APPLAUSE)

This year marks the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, the guardian of liberty, who labored tirelessly that “this nation, under God, [might] have a new birth of freedom”. Building a future of freedom requires love of the common good and cooperation in a spirit of subsidiarity and solidarity.

All of us are quite aware of, and deeply worried by, the disturbing social and political situation of the world today. Our world is increasingly a place of violent conflict, hatred and brutal atrocities, committed even in the name of God and of religion. We know that no religion is immune from forms of individual delusion or ideological extremism. This means that we must be especially attentive to every type of fundamentalism, whether religious or of any other kind. A delicate balance is required to combat violence perpetrated in the name of a religion, an ideology or an economic system, while also safeguarding religious freedom, intellectual freedom and individual freedoms. (APPLAUSE)

But there is another temptation which we must especially guard against: the simplistic reductionism which sees only good or evil; or, if you will, the righteous and sinners. The contemporary world, with its open wounds which affect so many of our brothers and sisters, demands that we confront every form of polarization which would divide it into these two camps. We know that in the attempt to be freed of the enemy without, we can be tempted to feed the enemy within. To imitate the hatred and violence of tyrants and murderers is the best way to take their place. That is something which you, as a people, reject. (APPLAUSE)

Our response must instead be one of hope and healing, of peace and justice. We are asked to summon the courage and the intelligence to resolve today’s many geopolitical and economic crises. Even in the developed world, the effects of unjust structures and actions are all too apparent. Our efforts must aim at restoring hope, righting wrongs, maintaining commitments, and thus promoting the well-being of individuals and of peoples. We must move forward together, as one, in a renewed spirit of fraternity and solidarity, cooperating generously for the common good. (APPLAUSE)

The challenges facing us today call for a renewal of that spirit of cooperation, which has accomplished so much good throughout the history of the United States. The complexity, the gravity and the urgency of these challenges demand that we pool our resources and talents, and resolve to support one another, with respect for our differences and our convictions of conscience.

In this land, the various religious denominations have greatly contributed to building and strengthening society. It is important that today, as in the past, the voice of faith continue to be heard, for it is a voice of fraternity and love, which tries to bring out the best in each person and in each society. Such cooperation is a powerful resource in the battle to eliminate new global forms of slavery, born of grave injustices which can be overcome only through new policies and new forms of social consensus.

Politics is, instead, an expression of our compelling need to live as one, in order to build as one the greatest common good: that of a community which sacrifices particular interests in order to share, in justice and peace, its goods, its interests, its social life. I do not underestimate the difficulty that this involves, but I encourage you in this effort. (APPLAUSE)

Here too I think of the march which Martin Luther King led from Selma to Montgomery fifty years ago as part of the campaign to fulfill his “dream” of full civil and political rights for African Americans.(APPLAUSE)
That dream continues to inspire us all. I am happy that America continues to be, for many, a land of “dreams”.  (APPLAUSE)

Dreams which lead to action, to participation, to commitment. Dreams which awaken what is deepest and truest in the life of a people.
In recent centuries, millions of people came to this land to pursue their dream of building a future in freedom. We, the people of this continent, are not fearful of foreigners, because most of us were once foreigners. (APPLAUSE)

I say this to you as the son of immigrants, knowing that so many of you are also descended from immigrants. (APPLAUSE)
Tragically, the rights of those who were here long before us were not always respected. For those peoples and their nations, from the heart of American democracy, I wish to reaffirm my highest esteem and appreciation. Those first contacts were often turbulent and violent, but we know it is very difficult to judge the past by the criteria of the present.
(APPLAUSE)
Nonetheless, when the stranger in our midst appeals to us, we must not repeat the sins and the errors of the past.
(APPLAUSE)
We must resolve now to live as nobly and as justly as possible, as we educate new generations not to turn their back on our “neighbors” and everything around us. Building a nation calls us to recognize that we must constantly relate to others, rejecting a mindset of hostility in order to adopt one of reciprocal subsidiarity, in a constant effort to do our best. I am confident that we can do this.
Our world is facing a refugee crisis of a magnitude not seen since the Second World War. This presents us with great challenges and many hard decisions. On this continent, too, thousands of persons are led to travel north in search of a better life for themselves and for their loved ones, in search of greater opportunities. Is this not what we want for our own children? (APPLAUSE)
We must not be taken aback by their numbers, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation. To respond in a way which is always humane, just and fraternal. We need to avoid a common temptation nowadays: to discard whatever proves troublesome. Let us remember the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you (APPLAUSE) would have them do unto you” (Mt 7:12).
This Rule points us in a clear direction. Let us treat others with the same passion and compassion with which we want to be treated. Let us seek for others the same possibilities which we seek for ourselves. Let us help others to grow, as we would like to be helped ourselves. In a word, if we want security, let us give security; if we want life, let us give life; if we want opportunities, let us provide opportunities. The yardstick we use for others will be the yardstick which time will use for us. (APPLAUSE)
The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development. (APPLAUSE)
This conviction has led me, from the beginning of my ministry, to advocate at different levels for the global abolition of the death penalty. (APPLAUSE)
I am convinced that this way is the best, since every life is sacred, every human person is endowed with an inalienable dignity, and society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes. Recently my brother bishops here in the United States renewed their call for the abolition of the death penalty. Not only do I support them, but I also offer encouragement to all those who are convinced that a just and necessary punishment must never exclude the dimension of hope and the goal of rehabilitation. (APPLAUSE)
In these times when social concerns are so important, I cannot fail to mention the Servant of God Dorothy Day, who founded the Catholic Worker Movement. Her social activism, her passion for justice and for the cause of the oppressed, were inspired by the Gospel, her faith, and the example of the saints.
How much progress has been made in this area in so many parts of the world! How much has been done in these first years of the third millennium to raise people out of extreme poverty! I know that you share my conviction that much more still needs to be done, and that in times of crisis and economic hardship a spirit of global solidarity must not be lost. At the same time I would encourage you to keep in mind all those people around us who are trapped in a cycle of poverty. They too need to be given hope. The fight against poverty and hunger must be fought constantly and on many fronts, especially in its causes. I know that many Americans today, as in the past, are working to deal with this problem.
It goes without saying that part of this great effort is the creation and distribution of wealth. The right use of natural resources, the proper application of technology and the harnessing of the spirit of enterprise are essential elements of an economy which seeks to be modern, inclusive and sustainable. “Business is a noble vocation, directed to producing wealth and improving the world. It can be a fruitful source of prosperity for the area in which it operates, especially if it sees the creation of jobs as an essential part of its service to the common good” (Laudato Si’, 129). (APPLAUSE)
This common good also includes the earth, a central theme of the encyclical which I recently wrote in order to “enter into dialogue with all people about our common home” (ibid., 3). “We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all” (ibid., 14).
In Laudato Si’, I call for a courageous and responsible effort to “redirect our steps” (ibid., 61), and to avert the most serious effects of the environmental deterioration caused by human activity. I am convinced that we can make a difference, I am sure. (APPLAUSE)
And I have no doubt that the United States – and this Congress – have an important role to play. Now is the time for courageous actions and strategies, aimed at implementing a “culture of care” (ibid., 231) and “an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature” (ibid., 139). (APPLAUSE)
“We have the freedom needed to limit and direct technology” (ibid., 112); “to devise intelligent ways of… developing and limiting our power” (ibid., 78); and to put technology “at the service of another type of progress, one which is healthier, more human, more social, more integral” (ibid., 112). In this regard, I am confident that America’s outstanding academic and research institutions can make a vital contribution in the years ahead.
(APPLAUSE)
A century ago, at the beginning of the Great War, which Pope Benedict XV termed a “pointless slaughter”, another notable American was born: the Cistercian monk Thomas Merton. He remains a source of spiritual inspiration and a guide for many people. In his autobiography he wrote: “I came into the world. Free by nature, in the image of God, I was nevertheless the prisoner of my own violence and my own selfishness, in the image of the world into which I was born. That world was the picture of Hell, full of men like myself, loving God, and yet hating him; born to love him, living instead in fear of hopeless self-contradictory hungers”. Merton was above all a man of prayer, a thinker who challenged the certitudes of his time and opened new horizons for souls and for the Church. He was also a man of dialogue, a promoter of peace between peoples and religions.
From this perspective of dialogue, I would like to recognize the efforts made in recent months to help overcome historic differences linked to painful episodes of the past. It is my duty to build bridges and to help all men and women, in any way possible, to do the same. When countries which have been at odds resume the path of dialogue – a dialogue which may have been interrupted for the most legitimate of reasons – new opportunities open up for all. This has required, and requires, courage and daring, which is not the same as irresponsibility. A good political leader is one who, with the interests of all in mind, seizes the moment in a spirit of openness and pragmatism. A good political leader always opts to initiate processes rather than possessing spaces (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 222-223). (APPLAUSE)
Being at the service of dialogue and peace also means being truly determined to minimize and, in the long term, to end the many armed conflicts throughout our world. (APPLAUSE)
Here we have to ask ourselves: Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society? Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood. In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade. (APPLAUSE)
Three sons and a daughter of this land, four individuals and four dreams: Lincoln, liberty; Martin Luther King, liberty in plurality and non-exclusion; Dorothy Day, social justice and the rights of persons; and Thomas Merton, the capacity for dialogue and openness to God.
Four representatives of the American people.
I will end my visit to your country in Philadelphia, where I will take part in the World Meeting of Families. It is my wish that throughout my visit the family should be a recurrent theme. How essential the family has been to the building of this country! (APPLAUSE)
And how worthy it remains of our support and encouragement! Yet I cannot hide my concern for the family, which is threatened, perhaps as never before, from within and without. Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family. I can only reiterate the importance and, above all, the richness and the beauty of family life. (APPLAUSE)
In particular, I would like to call attention to those family members who are the most vulnerable, the young. For many of them, a future filled with countless possibilities beckons, yet so many others seem disoriented and aimless, trapped in a hopeless maze of violence, abuse and despair. Their problems are our problems. (APPLAUSE)
We cannot avoid them. We need to face them together, to talk about them and to seek effective solutions rather than getting bogged down in discussions. At the risk of oversimplifying, we might say that we live in a culture which pressures young people not to start a family, because they lack possibilities for the future.
Yet this same culture presents others with so many options that they too are dissuaded from starting a family. A nation can be considered great when it defends liberty as Lincoln did, when it fosters a culture which enables people to “dream” of full rights for all their brothers and sisters, as Martin Luther King sought to do; when it strives for justice and the cause of the oppressed, as Dorothy Day did by her tireless work, the fruit of a faith which becomes dialogue and sows peace in the contemplative style of Thomas Merton.
In these remarks I have sought to present some of the richness of your cultural heritage, of the spirit of the American people. It is my desire that this spirit continue to develop and grow, so that as many young people as possible can inherit and dwell in a land which has inspired so many people to dream.
God bless America! (APPLAUSE)

Furry as Pope Francis makes Brutal monk Junipero Serra, saint of California




  http://cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/pope-francis-christmas-2014.jpg

Brutal monk made saint of California

http://ivarfjeld.com/2015/09/24/brutal-munk-made-saint-of-california/ 

Catholic “saint” Junipero Serra was a brutal missionary who enslaved native Americans.



Professor Thinker critizise the Pope for making a brutal opressor a
Professor  George Thinker critizise the Pope for making a brutal opressor a “saint”.
This is the reaction of George Tinker on the occasion of Pope Francis making Franciscan munk Junipero Serra a “saint” of California.

 


Thinker is Professor of American Indian Cultures and Religious Traditions at Iliff School of Theology and author of Missionary Conquest: The Gospel and Native American Genocide.


saint


Thinker reacts to the canonization of Junipero Serra done by Pope Francis during the present visit to the US. Thinker recalled the “almost slave-labor conditions” that Native Americans were subjected to under Serra’s leadership.

Credited with baptizing around 90,000 Indians during his lifetime, there is wide agreement among historians that Serra’s evangelism tactics were harsh by any modern standard.



Many native Americans reacts sternly against the sainthood granted to a criminal munk.
Many native Americans reacted sternly against the sainthood granted to a criminal monk.
Citing accounts from Serra’s own lieutenant, Tinker said the Franciscan priest prohibited converts from leaving his Christian compounds, often called missions, and forced them to endure grueling labor on Spanish-run farms. Any attempt to flee was met with brutal reprisals.

“The army would round the person up, bring him back to the mission compound, and then the person is punished,” he said, “The mission compound was run kind of like a military boot camp.”

 

A group of Native Americans remains opposed to the canonization. They prayed at the mission’s cemetery and to express disappointment that the pope ignored a request to listen to them. “Supposedly as a man of God that he doesn’t care what thousands of California Indians are saying, even to come and meet with us,” Esselen Nation Tribal Chairwoman Louise Miranda Ramirez said.deb
“Serra was not the face of evil”, says Deborah Miranda, a professor of literature at Washington and Lee University and an Ohlone Costanoan Esselen Indian. “But there were so many atrocities happening and he closed his eyes,” she said. “I don’t think he should be rewarded for that.”

Source: Think Progres

My comment:
Lets keep the unbiblical canonization process of the Roman Catholic Church for a moment.  And rather focus on the injustice done to people who were forcefully converted to Catholicism druing the failed Spanish conquest of California.
To canonize a brutal oppressor of the Spanish colonialism is yet another example of the double talk of the present Pope. He speaks against Capitalism and oppression of the poor in one TV-camera. And in the next, he praises Franciscan monk Junipero Serra.

A lot of people do not mind that the Christian faith is defamed by the Pope. They use the papacy as an example of why they do not believe in the Biblical faith in Jesus.

Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.
Let it be underline, one more time. The Pope is an antichrist. All true evangelical Christians have held this view since the Reformation.  In our days, a lot of apostate protestants tried to revoke the lessons of the Reformation, and have started to embrace the Pope as a Christian leader. Do not listen to them, but rather rebuke and resist them.
May Jesus the Messiah have mercy on all deceived souls.
Written by Ivar


Junípero Serra's brutal story in spotlight as pope prepares for canonisation 

Many have condemned decision to elevate 18th-century missionary to sainthood after violence suffered by Native Americans he was said to be protecting

A statue of Friar Junipero Serra stands outside the Mission San Gabriel Arcangel in San Gabriel, California. 
Astatue of Junípero Serra stands outside the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel in San Gabriel, California. Photograph: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

Generations of American schoolchildren have been taught to think of Father Junípero Serra as California’s benevolent founding father, a humble Franciscan monk who left a life of comfort and plenty on the island of Mallorca to travel to the farthest reaches of the New World and protect the natives from the worst abuses of the Spanish imperial army.
Under Serra’s leadership, tens of thousands of Native Americans across Alta California, as the region was then known, were absorbed into Catholic missions – places said by one particularly rapturous myth-maker in the 19th century to be filled with “song, laughter, good food, beautiful languor, and mystical adoration of the Christ”.
What this rosy-eyed view omits is that these natives were brutalized – beaten, pressed into forced labour and infected with diseases to which they had no resistance – and the attempt to integrate them into the empire was a miserable failure. The journalist and historian Carey McWilliams wrote almost 70 years ago the missions could be better conceived as “a series of picturesque charnel houses”.

Little wonder, then, that Pope Francis’s decision to elevate Serra to sainthood during his visit to Washington this week has revived longstanding controversies and enraged representatives of California’s last surviving Native American populations. There have been protests outside some of California’s most heavily visited Missions, petitions, open letters written both to the pope and to California’s political leaders, and even an attempt by members of the state legislature to have Serra replaced as one of California’s two representative figures in Washington’s National Statuary Hall. Natives travelled to California and Washington this week to protest against Serra’s elevation in person.
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Opponents point out that, from the time Serra arrived in 1769, the native population was ravaged by European diseases, including syphilis spread by marauding Spanish soldiers. Indians brought into the missions were not allowed to leave, and if they tried they were shackled and severely beaten.
They were used as forced labour to build out the Mission’s farming projects. They were fed atrociously, separated from close family members and packed into tight living quarters that often became miasmas of disease and death.
When the Native Americans rebelled, which they did on at least two occasions, their rebellions were put down in brutal fashion. When Native American women were caught trying to abort babies conceived through rape, the mission fathers had them beaten for days on end, clamped them in irons, had their heads shaved and forced them to stand at the church altar every Sunday carrying a painted wooden child in their arms.
Passions are riding high on both sides. While Serra’s critics say he was responsible for the near-eradication of California’s native peoples, the state’s governor, Jerry Brown, has defended him as “a very courageous man”, an innovator and a pioneer, and vowed that his statue will stay in Washington “until the end of time”.
In many ways, the issue is reminiscent of the Vatican’s campaign a few years ago to canonise Pius XII, the wartime pope accused in many quarters of failing to stand up to the Nazis and helping in their rise to power, but defended in others as a holy man who did his part to save many hundreds of thousands of Jews.
The push to canonise Pius XII (now on hold) came in the wake of a 1998 papal document that sought to atone for the church’s silence in the face of the Holocaust. Likewise, Serra’s sainthood follows an apology issued by Pope Francis in Bolivia this summer for the “grave sins … committed against the native peoples of America in the name of God”.
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That, however, has only further raised the hackles of Serra critics, who say the apology means nothing if the Vatican simultaneously seeks to canonise a person exemplifying the actions for which the apology was issued. “Apologies that aren’t followed by a change of behaviour, in general, don’t carry a lot of weight,” Deborah Miranda of Washington and Lee University, who is of California Native American descent, said in a recent magazine interview.
Even mainstream Catholics have been surprised that Pope Francis has championed Serra without going through the usual four-step review process, including verification of two miracles. Serra has been credited with only one.
The cause of his sainthood, which was first proposed in 1930, was long ago assumed to have stalled because of the controversies surrounding his legacy.
But Francis, as the first Latin American pope, has an obvious interest in creating a role model for Latinos in the United States and the rest of the American continent – an interest echoed by the state of California, which can now look forward to a global wave of Serra-related tourism. The pope also appears to have an interesting theological take on Serra’s imperfections. Kevin Starr, widely regarded as California’s pre-eminent state historian, summarised the Vatican’s view this way: “Saints do not have to be perfect. Nobody is perfect. Sanctity is just another mode of imperfection.”

In other words, it is enough to state that the good outweighs the bad. José Gómez, the first Latino archbishop of Los Angeles and an enthusiastic Serra champion, wrote recently: “Whatever human faults he may have had and whatever mistakes he may have made, there is no questioning that he lived a life of sacrifice and self-denial.”
Gómez also argued that we cannot judge 18th-century behaviour by 21st-century standards – a form of historical relativism that the Serra critics find particularly galling. John Cornwell, a British journalist turned academic who has written extensively about the Vatican, including an acclaimed book about Pius XII, said the argument also clouded the important question of whether Serra was an appropriate exemplar for today’s faithful.
“For those who argue that we should not judge the values of the past by those of the present,” Cornwell told the Guardian, “one could, and should, object that it’s important to learn the lessons of history.”
To Native Americans like Valentin Lopez, the chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band based in Sacramento, those lessons are not complicated. Serra, in his view, was part of a colonial enterprise whose goal was the complete subjugation of California’s native peoples. The mission system he set up was based on coercion, punishment and indifference to Indian suffering, against which his expressions of piety were no more than window-dressing.
“It’s amazing to me this is even a debate,” Lopez told the Guardian. “There is no debate – it’s like debating the pros and cons of the genocide of the Jewish people in world war two. The only reason this is not treated as a black and white issue is because of the lies that the church and the state of California have perpetuated from the time of the missions.”
Helen Hunt Jackson’s 1884 bestselling novel Ramona set the tone for a mythologised history of the Missions, giving the impression Spanish colonialism had been an idyll for settlers and Native Americans alike and that the natives only suffered after the gringos began arriving. Even the most ardent Catholic historians now accept this is flat-out wrong.
A flurry of recent Serra scholarship, however, suggests the politics of the Spanish conquest were complicated. Missions were established with much greater success and lesser suffering in other parts of the American continent – particularly by the Jesuits. Serra’s mandate only arose because the Vatican temporarily disbanded the Jesuits in 1767, and many of the mistakes he and the Franciscans made were the result of inexperience, according to Professor Starr.
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“The perspective of Franciscans and Dominicans of that era was: God will punish us for the way we treat the Indians, so we’ve got to protect them as some kind of atonement,” Starr told the Guardian. “Serra knew he couldn’t keep California a Franciscan mission protectorate forever. He hoped that by the time Spaniards came in large numbers, Native Americans would be educated and competent to deal with it. That was the dream, but the dream never came true.”
The biggest philosophical divide among serious historians is whether Serra’s initiative was worth undertaking in the first place. Catholic scholars – including Professor Starr – tend to take an indulgent view of the church’s evangelizing mission, while Native American advocates like Lopez view the imposition of Catholicism as a violation of the Indians’ longstanding spiritual traditions, just as the Spanish conquest disrupted and violated their way of life more generally.
The Vatican would like to believe that Serra and the missionaries were somehow separate from the Spanish colonial enterprise, and that the army’s abuses should not in any way be laid at Serra’s door. Pope Francis said in May that Serra was one of a generation of missionaries “who … defended the indigenous peoples against abuses by the colonisers”.
Most historians, however, dismiss that interpretation as fanciful. While it’s true that Serra was often at odds with military commanders in the region, he travelled to the New World at the behest and direction of the same Spanish crown in command of the army. He couldn’t be against the colonisers, because he was one himself.
“The church and the army were partners,” Lopez said. “Junípero Serra’s own handwriting details the cruelties. His policy was to enslave the Indians – he didn’t let them leave the missions. You can’t blame that on Spanish soldiers.”
Out of deference to the papal visit, the push to have Serra’s statue in Washington replaced with the late astronaut Sally Ride – championed by LGBT advocacy groups as well as fans of space exploration – has been deferred until after Francis is back in Rome. But the sponsors of the measure, including a Latino state senator from Los Angeles and the speaker of the state assembly, have vowed to reintroduce it thereafter – paving the way for yet more showdowns over Serra in the foreseeable future.

Hero or horror? Junipero Serra, priest behind Calif. missions, becomes a saint 

Los Angeles (CNN)Andrew Galvan knows the wound that lingers almost 250 years later, the one that bears upon the genesis of the great American West.
The British colonized the East, but here in California, the Spaniards arrived with their armies and Catholic missionaries to take the West.
It was Galvan's great-great-great-great-grandparents who in 1794 were among the first Indians to be baptized in one of the state's iconic missions whose architect was the pioneering and controversial priest Junipero Serra.
Many Americans may not know Serra's name, but here in California, the Spanish missionary is as storied as the majestic coastline itself.
Serra initiated the building of the missions that line California and remain a top tourist attraction. Every fourth-grader here must learn the history of the 21 Spanish missions, built between 1769 and 1823, some of them now National Historic Landmarks. Serra built the first nine.
The Vatican reveres Serra, too. In fact, Serra is deemed such a great evangelist for the Catholic Church that Pope Francis officially declared him a saint this week during his visit to the United States.
For many Native Americans, Latinos and others, Serra was no saint, and his canonization makes an old wound bleed again. But to those who champion the missionaries' daring foray into the dominion of American Indians, the sainthood heralds an apotheosis for the padre who brought the word of Christ here.
"I wouldn't say the announcement of the Holy Father to canonize Junipero Serra has opened old wounds. It has provided an opportunity to remind many people, including Indians, that there are wounds that require healing," said Galvan, 60, of East Bay, California. "These wounds have been there. The opportunity of canonization is an opportunity to heal these wounds."
That may or may not be.

Historic firsts on many levels

Francis, the first Latin American pope, advanced the sainthood for Serra because he was "one of the founding fathers of the United States" and a "special patron of the Hispanic people of the country," the Vatican says.
That makes Serra's canonization a landmark moment for many Latinos, a people born of the cataclysm when the Old and New Worlds met centuries ago. After all, the first nonindigenous language spoken in America wasn't English, but Spanish.
Serra became the first saint canonized on U.S. soil with Francis' declaration in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday.
The setting made a not-so-subtle political point at a time when Congress and presidential candidates remain ferociously deadlocked about addressing an immigration flow so massive that Latinos are now the largest U.S. minority, about a sixth of them without documentation.
"This is the big story: The first Hispanic Pope is coming to America to give us our first Hispanic saint. This is not a coincidence," Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles told the nation's religion writers at an August conference.
"But this canonization is more than an ethnic event or a religious event. The Pope is calling all of us in America to reflect on our history and our nation's Hispanic and Catholic heritage and our legacy as a nation of immigrants," Gomez said. "For me, this is probably the most important dimension of the Pope's visit."
Francis also is the son of immigrants.
But Serra left behind a dark legacy that inevitably occurs when colonizers from the other side of the planet impose their will and religion upon an indigenous people.
Contagion and suffering decimated the native population several times over, and now the descendants of those original tribes struggle with, if not outright protest, sainthood for the missionary-in-chief of California. Their own Catholicism deepens the conflict.

A period of brutality

For many, the wound is better healed by relegating Serra to the abyss of history.
To them, the Franciscan friar from the island of Majorca represented yet another front in Europe's imperial conquest of the native peoples and lands of America.
"We're stunned and we're in disbelief," said Valentin Lopez, 63, chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band located along Monterey Bay.
"We believe saints are supposed to be people who followed in the life of Jesus Christ and the words of Jesus Christ. There was no Jesus Christ lifestyle at the missions," Lopez said, who has campaigned against sainthood for Serra.
"The mission period was brutal on our people," he said. "There can be no doubt that Junipero Serra is personally responsible for destroying our culture."
It's not easy speaking against the church and the popular Pope because Lopez is Catholic, as are many in his 600-member tribe, he said. In fact, he was an altar boy for nine years in grade school.
"We were raised not to say anything bad about the Catholic religion, but at the same time, we can't stay quiet about this. It's like the altar boy scandal. All the people who stayed quiet about the altar boy scandal, how do they feel now?" Lopez said.
"It seems like the church is doing all it can to separate Serra from the atrocities and deaths and what happened to the Indians, but that does not work," he said.
The life of Serra remains as controversial as any of the so-called conquistadores of Spain who ravaged their way through much of the Americas with crosses and swords -- in pursuit of gold and silver while contending they were servants of Christ and crown.

A history of disease and forced labor

Indeed, interpretations of Serra's legacy vary as much as the people telling it.
Consider what the official California school curriculum states bluntly:
"The historical record of this era remains incomplete due to the relative absence of native testimony, but it is clear that while missionaries brought agriculture, the Spanish language and culture, and Christianity to the native population, American Indians suffered in many California missions.
"The death rate was extremely high. Contributing factors included the hardships of forced labor and, primarily, the introduction of diseases for which the native population did not have immunity. Moreover, the imposition of forced labor and highly structured living arrangements degraded individuals, constrained families, circumscribed native culture, and negatively impacted scores of communities."

Great evangelist of frontier West

Surely, Francis -- a native of Argentina and the first Jesuit pontiff -- knows the contentious legacy of the Spanish colonizers.
So why did Francis grant Serra sainthood -- and even overlooked the requirement of a second miracle by Serra that's typically needed for sainthood? Under an extraordinary form of canonization, the pope bypassed that requirement because a strong devotion among the faithful has long venerated Serra as saintly. Serra's first miracle was healing a nun of lupus.
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"The Pope is very concerned about the idea of evangelization," said Fr. Ken Laverone, a church canon lawyer and a Franciscan in Sacramento who as vice postulator is two degrees removed from the Vatican in Serra's canonization process. Laverone's seventh-great-grandfather was among the settlers who followed the missions, at San Jose, in 1774.
"He saw Serra as a prime example of evangelization in the western United States, in California, primarily," Laverone said.
Indeed, Francis lays out a bold new vision for Catholicism, plagued by what he called a "tomb psychology," and makes "New Evangelization" a centerpiece of his papacy.
The Pope touched upon his pastoral standards in 2013: "I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security."
Though Francis wasn't specifically referring to Serra, the intrepid Spaniard does fit such a vision. Serra left behind a cushy academic job as a university professor in Spain and became a missionary in modern Mexico, with a vision to convert Indians on the entire North American coast to Alaska. Serra died in 1784 at one of the California missions, in present-day Carmel.
Laverone asserted it's unfair to judge Serra in a 21st century context, but the canon lawyer "wouldn't be surprised" if the Pope makes "a formal apology and a plea of forgiveness from the native people" this week, as Francis did in Bolivia this summer when he apologized for the "many grave sins" against South America's indigenous people during Spanish colonization there.

Serra led 'the genocide'

But activists with the Mexica Movement such as Olin Tezcatlipoca call Serra the leader of an atrocity. The movement is an indigenous right education organization for people of Mexican, Central American and Native American descent that advocates "total liberation from Europeans."
"He planned the genocide," said Tezcatlipoca, 55, a retired film editor in San Bernardino who legally changed his name to an indigenous one because he wanted "to do an ethnic correction with a name that reflects my true heritage."
"The Pope is doing a continuation of genocide," Tezcatlipoca added.
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Psychiatrist Donna Schindler of Auburn, California, has worked with American Indians and indigenous people as far away as New Zealand for most of her 31-year practice. She described the record of atrocity and abuse, retold by Indian families today, as "historical trauma" or "intergenerational trauma."
"It is the most painful things imaginable to hear these stories," said Schindler, who also works with Lopez' tribe. "The descendants have been suffering the soul wound for 200 years."
Among the ugly legacies for Indians is how their ancestors are buried in unmarked graves in mission cemeteries -- and yet they are still charged an admission fee of up $9 to enter a mission museum.
"This is so over the top," Schindler said of Serra's sainthood. "You've hurt these people already, and now we're going to reinjure them for no particular reason.
"Why is this so important? What do they think they're going to accomplish by doing this?" said Schindler, a Catholic who stopped attending Mass this year after plans for Serra's sainthood became official.

Historian's view: What really happened?

Serra's fortunes rose after the Spanish crown expelled Jesuits from the empire, and the Franciscans took over former Jesuit missions in Mexico, where Serra had been based since 1750, said history professor Robert Senkewicz of Santa Clara University, who with historian Rose Marie Beebe wrote a recent book on Serra.
From 1769 until his death 15 years later, Serra worked in modern California as part of the Spanish empire's expansion from Mexico City. Serra founded nine missions from San Diego to San Francisco from age 55 until his death at 70.
"The job of the mission was to basically assimilate the native peoples, to make them more Spanish. And part of making them more Spanish was basically making them Catholics," Senkewicz said.
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"It wasn't that that the native peoples were dragged into the missions by force, but they kind of had little choice in some senses because there at least was some kind of food there," Senkewicz said.
Once in the missions, the Indians were baptized and couldn't leave without permission.
If they didn't return on time, the priest would dispatch soldiers and other mission Indians, "and they would forcibly bring people back to the mission," Senkewicz said. "It's an odd sort of thing which is very difficult to understand now because people were invited into the mission.
"When they were returned, the punishment was flogging, and the flogging was very severe and it was very, very intense, and it was meant to be a painful deterrent," the historian added. "And the flogging was pretty brutal at times."
No documented evidence exists, however, that Serra himself flogged or used corporal punishment on the Indians, the Los Angeles Archdiocese says.
Serra often distanced himself and his missions from the soldiers' garrisons, and he "was constantly critiquing the military for its treatment of the Native Americans," including rape of Indian women, Laverone added.
"He didn't want them to be infected by the Spanish military way of thinking," Laverone said. "There was a battle there. Am I in charge or is the commander of the Spanish military?"
There was one thing Serra couldn't control: virulence.
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The Spaniards introduced disease that halved the Indian population from 310,000 to about 150,000 from the time of the missionaries' arrival in 1769 until California became a state in 1850, Senkewicz said.
As staggering as the toll was, the Indians learned skills, built the enduring missions and learned Christianity.
And Serra was the patrician father of it all.
"He also was somebody who deep in his heart believed that he loved the Indians," Senkewicz said. "He thought that they were like children, and the missions were frankly paternalistic institutions, and Serra was frankly paternalistic.
"A good father sometimes has to be stern and tough with his children," Senkewicz said.

Transformation of a mission archaeologist

Serra's impact on America speaks to the intersection of faith, identity, and origin.
Those themes exert profound power over people, and Ruben Mendoza is no exception.
An archaeologist, Mendoza is director of the California missions archaeological program at California State University, Monterey Bay, where he is among the founding faculty.
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But for much of his life, he despised the Spaniards and their conquest of native people.
After all, Mendoza's grandmother was a 4-foot-7-inch Yaqui Indian who lived in Mexico, where his family originates.
In fact, Mendoza, now 59, grew up reciting the Lord's Prayer in Nahuatl, an indigenous language of Mexico.
Born and raised Catholic in California's San Joaquin Valley, Mendoza condemned Spanish colonialism, which he called a "cancer."
"I had become very negative to anything related to the Spanish or the European," Mendoza said.
So he immersed himself in the culture of native people, which became his identity.
Then, life began to change when he worked an archaeological dig at a 16th century convent in Puebla, Mexico.
There he discovered something about himself.
Out of the rubble, he saw a mélange of artifacts of three peoples: European, Indian, and Mexican.
The relics piled together marked "the beginnings of an epiphany," he said.
"Until 1993, I was ultra-indigenous," Mendoza said. "I had ignored the Hispanic dimension. There I was forced to reconcile both of those things."
Later, in 2006, the diocese of Monterey asked Mendoza to assess one of the missions founded by Serra.
Mendoza made another discovery: He found the original foundation of a chapel used by Serra in 1772, making it the earliest formal Christian architecture in California.
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The find left Mendoza thunderstruck. Serra's frontier evangelism among the Indians left a profound impression. And now Mendoza was standing in the remains of an area that once held the tabernacle.
"Suddenly, all of my ancestors channeled me in this area. I'm a scientist, and I now that sounds flaky, but it was so powerful, and I fell to my knees and made the sign of the cross," Mendoza said.
"I had an adversarial relationship with Serra which went unspoken up until that moment," Mendoza said. "I am both of these traditions. Why do I keep denigrating half of who I am in order to accommodate the indigenous?"
Now when Mendoza is asked about Serra's canonization, Mendoza declares: "It's past due."
Though he has been "attacked as a person of indigenous heritage working on the missions," Mendoza welcomes how the Serra controversy "opens a dialogue about Hispanics and the indigenous."

Galvan's story: the mission curator

Galvan, the fourth-great-grandson of the first mission Indians, has endured his share of vilifications, too.
What sets Galvan's story apart is his role in the California's missions.
He is the curator, or museum director, at Mission Dolores in San Francisco.
"I am the only descendant of Indians who were missionized at any of the 21 California missions who is currently in a position of responsibility at one of those missions. So it's a unique situation, and it's one that I would hope in the next 20 or 30 years changes," Galvan said.
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Galvan sees Serra's sainthood as an opportunity for Indians to leverage the church for changes at the missions.
He would like to see free admission for visitors who are Native American, the creation of a standard presentation on the Indian world before the Spanish occupation, displays on which tribes built the mission, and an acknowledgment of native peoples today.
"Somewhere in the timeline, the Indians just disappear. Gone. They just don't exist," Galvan said of the missions' educational features. "Most mission museums do not even acknowledge that native people exist today."
In fact, Mission Dolores doesn't even list the names of the 5,700 Indians buried there between 1776 and 1834 -- except for two names.
They are Galvan's fourth-great-grandparents, thanks to a grave marker installed by Galvan. Galvan is urging the church to create a digital projection screen of the remaining 5,698 names.
For now, Galvan is encouraged by the missions and their bishops to consider some of those proposals, though Galvan likens his efforts to "the dog barking in the building." The Catholic Church now runs 19 of the 21 missions as active parishes.
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"These are the positive things that could happen. The pus is still oozing. Do you want to put a poultice on it to make it better?" Galvan said, referring to the enduring wound of Native Americans.
While a crusader about healing those injuries, Galvan nonetheless endorses the canonization of Serra.
In fact, he has urged sainthood for Serra for the past 37 years, working with the Franciscans' campaign.
"Everybody ... asks, Andy, how can you support the guy? I have to be able to sleep at night. So I have answered that: I believe Junipero Serra was a very, very good man in a very, very bad situation. And the bad situation is what we call colonialism," Galvan said. "Junipero Serra is being proclaimed a saint because he lived the life of a saint."
Galvan added a personal note: "He is the person who brings the Christian gospel to my ancestors in California."
With that conviction, Galvan will attend the Pope's official ceremony canonizing Serra in Washington this week.
There, he will take on another unique role.
"I will be the happiest Indian in the United States of America that day," he said of a St. Junipero Serra.
Updated 2253 GMT (0553 HKT) September 23, 2015 | Video Source: CN