There is much that can be said about Pope Francis’s (Jorge Mario Bergoglio)
visit to the United States and the constant news sensationalism by the
capitalist owned mass media. One cannot avoid being amused by observing the
hypocrisy that has surfaced as a result of this visit, with special emphasis on
the use of phrases that allude to charity and the poor. Greedy giant bank and
corporate executives as well as top government officials, eager to increase
police powers and eliminate social programs for the poor, were anxious to
project themselves as being in harmony with the overtures of “goodwill and
peace” in the world.
But despite the theatrics involved, nothing can point best in the direction
of what was the real purpose of Pope Francis’ visit than the canonization of the
notorious Junipero Serra, an 18th century Franciscan priest who continues to be
a hated historical figure by Native Americans. He was responsible for the
enslavement, torture, murder and rape of tens of thousands Indigenous people
from various tribes throughout the region of what is now the U.S. state of
California and the Mexican state of Baja California.
Ironically, Pope Francis proceeded to make Junipero Serra a saint without
following the Vatican’s own criteria required in canonizations – four “miracles”
that occurred in the lifetime of a person being proposed for sainthood. Pope
Francis chose to use only one. Also, a special mass was held at the Basilica of
the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. on
September 23 where Pope Francis conducted the canonization, the very first time
a ceremony of this kind took place in the United States.
While many vainly cheered the Pope’s arrival on the streets of Washington,
D. C., Philadelphia and New York City, many Native Americans justifiably
protested Junipero Serra made a saint at many of the most visited missions
throughout California. Many voiced outrage to the Pope for adding insult to
injury.
Considering the entire history of the brutal European conquest of the
Western Hemisphere from which the ruling class benefited, it wouldn’t take much
imagination to figure out why government officials embraced the symbolism of
this ritual. What Pope Francis ended up doing was legitimizing white supremacy
and the genocide of Indigenous people.
Junipero Serra’s appointment by the Spanish Crown merits inquiry, that is,
if one were serious enough to desire knowing Pope Francis’ motives in turning a
criminal into a saint.
Bourgeois and clerical historians may describe Serra as a “man of peace”
but his title as Inquisitor was equivalent to a high rank in Nazi Germany’s SS.
Serra reported to the Council Of Inquisitions in Madrid and to the Viceroy in
Mexico City, the highest ranking Spanish official for all of occupied
Mexico.
The same Spanish monarchs that appointed the Spanish Army’s officer staff
with the task of engaging in the techniques of violence for the purposes of
colonization also appointed Junipero Serra to perform his own particular part in
the same quest that aimed to subjugate the native inhabitants. Serra could not
have been anything but another colonizer with a different uniform. Anyone who
believes that Pope Francis was unaware of these historical facts pertaining to
his own church is living in a world of denial.
The torture inflicted upon Indigenous people in that region back then is a
memory that has been passed down from one generation to the next. Native people
were hunted down by Spanish soldiers and brought before Serra for “conversion”
to the Catholic religion.
Many Indigenous people were used as slaves for the construction of churches
and military fortifications; anyone who resisted was tortured or executed
immediately in public for all to witness; Indigenous women were held in separate
quarters and were routinely raped by Spanish soldiers; and women who were caught
attempting to abort the fetus of a rape were usually beaten and humiliated by
being forced to stand at the church alter holding a figure of a baby made of
wood during Sunday mass services.
Shamefully, many political Left (“socialist”) and progressive circles have
tended to back away from providing critical analysis about what was behind the
Pope’s visit. They have instead chosen to approach the matter as if it were a
taboo, either by remaining virtually silent or taking on a posture of
indifference.
Pope Francis and the Roman Catholic Church are no friends of the working
class and oppressed people of color. On the contrary, the Roman Catholic Church
as well as other organized religions have historically been ideological weapons
in the hands of tyrants, conquerors, exploiters and racists. The Church was
first used by feudal monarchs and today by ruthless imperialist powers,
especially the United States, as a means to defuse mass resistance against
oppression.
The Roman Catholic Church & the Capitalist
System
Let’s take into consideration that the Roman Catholic Church is the third
largest land owner in the world, a status which it obtained not through “prayer
& faith” but as a result of its complicity in conquest, thievery and
colonization. It is no wonder why the feudal monarchs of Spain assigned Junipero
Serra the task of destroying Indigenous people’s religious customs — a harsh
tactic aimed to break the fighting spirit of the native inhabitants and
ultimately create the scenario for stealing their lands.
Today the Vatican’s largest financial investments in foreign countries,
ranging in billions of dollars, are made in the United States. The wealth of
this church is intertwined with giant corporations like J.P. Morgan Chase and
the First National Bank of New York. The Vatican also has billions of shares in
the most powerful international corporations such as Gulf Oil, Shell, General
Motors, Bethlehem Steel, General Electric, International Business Machines,
T.W.A., etc., as well as large investments with the Rothschilds.
It is quite obvious that the Roman Catholic Church has a special interest
in the preservation of the capitalist system. Nothing else can best explain why
this institution once provided the ideological justification for the African
slave trade and the murderous onslaught against Native Americans.
It is very likely that Pope Francis was chosen as the head of the Church
for his skillfulness in demagoguery, especially when the church hierarchy was in
the midst of a political crisis triggered by sex scandals. He has also
distinguished himself from previous Popes with his charisma and his usage of
liberal terminology and formulations that has won him popularity across a
spectrum of public opinion, including recent remarks made about the “evils of
capitalism” in interviews given when referring to the plight of the poor.
But let’s keep in mind that Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini also made
such self-serving pretentious references. It is a blatant contradiction to
address issues that people are drawn by, such as the environment, homelessness,
the death penalty, etc, and yet say nothing about the colossal wealth the Roman
Catholic Church possesses while social and economic inequality is on the
rise.
Oppressed and exploited people cannot rely on the empty and
charitable-sounding language of an institution that has shown repeatedly to
answer solely to the privileged and wealthy. The capitalist system has built
many walls for it’s own protection and preservation—the police, the courts,
prisons, as well as organized religion of which the Roman Catholic Church
blatantly stands out for serving this purpose.
There is no doubt that the attainability of justice will require a mass
revolutionary struggle which will force open the coffers of the capitalist class
as well as the Roman Catholic Church. It is only when the have-nots of this
society are finally compelled to rise up to take back all that was robbed from
us, and bring to justice villains like Junipero Serra, that real change will
occur in this world.
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