The Valley Catholic
Blessed Junipero Serra
November 5, 2013
7
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care network that
provides choice.
Health care should be about choice. Daughters of Charity Health System’s
SCU Professors Robert Senkewicz and Rose Marie Beebe shared
their research on Blessed Junipero Serra.
Local professors analyze Blessed
Junipero Serra’s approach to
California native peoples
expanded integrated network of physicians, hospitals, urgent care
centers, and outpatient, primary and specialty care provides the
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Health care isn’t always predictable. What you can plan for is having
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By Dr. Audry L. Lynch
Two University of Santa Clara professors, Rose Marie Beebe
(Spanish teacher for 35 years) and Robert Senkewicz (history
teacher for 37 years) tackled the question “What was Blessed
Serra like and how did he deal with the native people of California?” at a recent conference of international scholars at the
Huntington Library.
Their presentation covered paradoxes of Serra’s life from
their years of research. Professor Beebe added immediacy to
the subject by reading her translations from Serra’s own diaries
and letters. “Our goal,” she said, “Is to let Blessed Serra speak
for himself.”
The professors have received grants for research from the
Academy of American Franciscan History in Santa Barbara. “We
found out how crucial Blessed Serra’s interpretation of Spanish
history and its culture was to his work by going back to original
sources,” Senkewicz explained.
Serra’s guide came from his religious beliefs. This often put
him at odds with Spanish soldiers who took their orders from
the Spanish Crown. His focus was evangelized activity with
emphasis on protection and conversion of the native peoples. The
soldiers followed the path of Spanish expansion and exploitation.
Lack of a common language led to misunderstandings on
both sides. As a result Blessed Serra started work on written
Catechisms for use by the converts.
Lack of communication also led to mistrust. Serra looked
forward to converting the Chumash tribe but felt alarmed one
day in Santa Barbara, when accompanied by soldiers and two
other priests, he ran into a group of them. He and his party
feared an ambush. Instead, the Chumash saw Serra’s sore leg,
picked him up and carried him to his destination. Fear gave
way to compassion.
Creating a human bond was Serra’s model of evangelization.
He felt this would lead to communication and help in spreading
the Gospel. In contrast to the soldiers, Blessed Serra’s reference
for action was always religion.
Professor Senkewicz’s biography of Blessed Serra, “To Toil in
that Vineyard of the Lord,” University of Oklahoma Press, will
be published in the fall of 2014.
Senkewicz said, “We’re telling the story in Blessed Serra’s own
words by using actual sources. We can’t forget his tremendous
legacy of the founding of the California Missions as well as
other institutions. We’re still living with what he set in motion.”
Deadline
for the December 10th edition
of The Valley Catholic is
Friday, November 22nd, noon.
learn more,
call 800-220-0182
dochs.org/ChooseWell
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