Keeping the American and Catholic story alive

I recently wrote a lengthy piece for a Catholic publication. Titled, “Roman Catholics: The Original Abolitionists,” the 2,500- word article laid out six centuries of Church teaching condemning slavery and racism. It’s a remarkable history— something to admire and be proud of. If one is genuinely seeking an impressive track record in support of human dignity and true social justice, then look at the Roman Catholic Church. 

As I noted in that article, now is the time for Catholics to seize upon that history as a teachable moment. Their Church has fought human enslavement since at least 1435, over a half century before Columbus set sail. In January 1435, Pope Eugene IV issued the encyclical Sicut Dudum, “Against the Enslaving of Black Natives from the Canary Islands.” The pope there “rebuked each sinner” guilty of slavery, warned of “their souls in danger,” and exhorted them to “desist” and “restrain” from such activities. He threatened a “sentence of excommunication be incurred by one and all who attempt to capture, sell, or subject to slavery.”

I gave such examples throughout the article, all the way through powerful statements directed at the Americas in the 19th century and still through Pope Francis today warning about human trafficking.

I wrote the piece in response to the current movement ripping down statues of everyone with a past connection to slavery and racism, from Confederate generals and George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to (quite confusingly) Union general Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, and even Frederick Douglass, the black abolitionist. Yes, none of the latter three make any sense as targets. But such are the results of the bad history that plagues us. Indeed, bad history has led to Catholic statues being targeted, from Columbus to Saint Louis to Saint Junipero Serra.

Honorable Catholic Antiquity

Now is the time to remind Catholics of this history and to urge them to share it, to voice the record that speaks so well of our faith.

Catholics need to go on offense today to keep the true story alive— to keep the American Catholic story alive.

Our Church has a beautiful history of boldly proclaiming timeless truth. If we don’t keep that history alive, then that past will die, and our very enlivened faith will suffer.

Look at the case of Junipero Serra. Serra was a founder of California, an unappreciated pioneer of this nation. The 18thcentury Spanish Franciscan built the famous mission churches throughout the state. California cities have saint names because of Serra’s missionaries: San Francisco, Santa Clara, Santa Barbara, Ventura (named for Saint Bonaventure).

Serra’s critics accuse him of nothing short of genocidal racism. Says one activist quoted by CNN: “We’ve been seeing around the country and the world statues of racist and genocidal people being taken down and we think it’s time that happens.”

That is nonsense. Pope Francis canonized Junipero Serra in September 2015 while in Washington, D.C. He rightly said that Serra not only did not mistreat Native Americans but “sought to defend the dignity of the native community, to protect it from those who had mistreated and abused it.”

Francis’ words were echoed by Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez, who noted that Serra displayed a “deep love for the native peoples” and preached “some truly remarkable things about human dignity, human rights.”

Persecutors ignorant of history

Sadly, Serra’s modern persecutors don’t know that history and seize upon a false narrative. Thus, very soon there likely will not be a Serra statue left standing in California. As I write, Serra in the last four weeks has been ripped down in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and is coming down in Ventura. His San Gabriel Mission recently went up in flames and is being investigated for possible arson. He was beheaded and spray-painted outside the Santa Barbara Mission.

I submit that what is happening to Saint Serra is what happens when we don’t go on offense. The real history of Serra has been forgotten, if never taught. And now, Catholics defending Serra’s statue in places like Ventura are literally on defense. Online you can see at Ventura City Hall that Thomas Aquinas College students stoically defended Serra’s statue from raging mobs.

They were on defense. And guess what? They lost. The city voted 6-0 to warehouse the statue.

Go online and watch the brave young girls saying the rosary while protecting a statue of Saint Louis in St. Louis. They’re on defense.

Our faithful have gone on defense because those who should be on offense dropped the ball. Forget about throwing deep. They’re not even seeking a first down.

American Catholic story needs re-telling

Alas, one need not be a writer or priest or bishop to go on offense. These battles can be waged on social media. Go there with informed articles and statements, share them, persuade, convince, change hearts and minds, enlighten. Light a candle rather than curse the darkness. Use technology to your advantage, rather than letting the other side win.

Tell the stories of inspiring natives or immigrants like Saints Kateri, Elizabeth Ann Seton, Frances Cabrini, or ex-slaves like Ven. Pierre Toussaint and Fr. Augustus Tolton, or point to the hospitals built by Catholics, the orphanages, the schools, or the heroic stories of wartime Catholic chaplains, or the godly lives of men like Solanus Casey and Fulton Sheen.

That history is there, but the stories must be told. It’s time to go on offense. We owe it to our Church and its faithful. It’s our American Catholic story.

Paul Kengor is professor of political science at Grove City College in Grove City, Pa. He is author of over a dozen books, including the soon-to-be-released The Devil and Karl Marx (TAN Books), A Pope and a President: John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and the Extraordinary Untold Story of the 20th Century