VANDALS TOPPLE, SPRAY-PAINT ST. JUNIPERO SERRA STATUE Days After He is Canonized by Pope (VIDEO)

St. Junipero Serra’s statue was vandalized at the Carmel Mission in northern California on Saturday.
serra shrine

This comes just days after Serra was canonized a saint by Pope Francis.

The IB Times reported:

Less than a week after Pope Francis canonized controversial Spanish missionary Junipero Serra in Washington, D.C., vandals damaged the saint’s statue at the Carmel Mission in northern California where his remains are buried, police said Sunday. The attackers also vandalized other statues and gravesites.

The attack happened Saturday night and the vandals splashed white and green paint on the mission’s doors, Carmel Police Sgt. Luke Powell told the Salinas Californian, a local news publication. The vandalism happened on the eve of a ceremony at the mission to commemorate Serra, according to the Associated Press.

Francis canonized Serra — a Franciscan friar — on Wednesday unsettling Native Americans who accuse the saint of being complicit in the killing of thousands of indigenous people and the destruction of their culture. However, his followers maintain that Serra worked as a moderating influence and welcomed the papal move, saying it was an act of acknowledgment of the American Church’s Hispanic history.

The saint’s statue, along with other statues, was toppled and someone scribbled “Saint of Genocide” on a headstone, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Here’s a photo of the statue before it was vandalized.

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Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016. In 2023, The Gateway Pundit received the Most Trusted Print Media Award at the American Liberty Awards.

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