A local woman has secured a ticket to the canonization Mass next week for Junipero Serra presided over by Pope Francis in Washington, D.C.
Donna Guerra Howe, a resident of Ridgemark just outside Hollister, received a ticket through the Monterey Diocese for the special mass to declare Junipero Serra a saint. It is set for 4:15 p.m. Eastern time Sept. 23 in the nation’s capital at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
Howe is spending two nights in Washington, D.C. and then is heading to New York City where she plans to witness the pope’s procession through Central Park two days later, as her daughter secured two tickets for that event through a lottery.
How received a ticket to the canonization Mass through an attorney for the diocese who had an extra one, she said. Howe noted how Fr. Heibar Castañeda from Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Tres Pinos was scheduled to take part in the canonization Mass as well.
She explained that the Monterey Diocese had been allotted tickets for the Mass due to Serra being buried at the Carmel Mission.
She was ecstatic when she got the offer for a ticket.
“I almost fell on the floor, of course,” she said.
The Serra canonization has come with controversy locally. The local Amah Mutsun tribe reinforced its opposition to the sainthood of Serra through a letter recently sent to Gov. Jerry Brown. According to Valentin Lopez, chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, the tribe delivered a second letter to the governor opposing the Serra canonization while restating a request for a meeting with Brown.
Lopez wrote in an email that “many California Indians the missions represent enslavement, whippings, torture and the rape of our ancestors.”
The message went on: “During the mission period it is estimated that 150,000 Indians died. Most of these deaths were caused by the wretched living conditions established by Junipero Serra. Neither California missions nor Junipero Serra’s methods are worthy of secular state pride or honor.”
The Amah Mutsuns have pointed to South Carolina’s governor calling on that state to remove the Confederate flag from the Capitol grounds and the tribe has started anonline petition in support of the cause.
It came after Native Americans gathered in San Juan Bautista in July to pray that Pope Francis reverse his decision to canonize Serra. The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band hosted the ceremony on the grass in front of the San Juan Bautista Mission.
Deacon William Ditewig, the director of the Diocese of Monterey—which includes the San Juan Bautista mission—has argued that the context of the Pope’s declaration is important and that saints don’t need to be perfect. He said they just need to have some qualities worth imitating.
Katie Helland contributed to this report.
