Pope to Make Priest Who Helped Bring Christianity to California a Saint

Pope Francis has said he will canonize Junipero Serra, a missionary who brought Christianity to California in the 18th century.

He will make the move in September, during a scheduled visit to the United States. Father Serra founded nine missions in California, however his treatment of the Native American population is now controversial.

The Pope's only official stop so far is a visit Philadelphia for an international Catholic gathering, though he is also expected to attend New York to address the UN, and to visit Washington for a meeting with President Barack Obama.

"In September, God willing, I will canonize Junipero Serra in the United States, who was the evangelizer of the west of the United States," he told reporters on a plane taking him from Sri Lanka to Manila as he tours Asia, according to the Catholic News Service.

The Pope said, since Father Serra has been considered a holy man for centuries, he had waived Church rules requiring a second miracle to be attributed to the candidate for sainthood after his beatification, adding that Serra was "a great evangelizer".

Jose Gomez, the Archbishop of Los Angeles, welcomed the move.

"It’s wonderful to think that this new saint once walked the road that is now the Hollywood Freeway and called it El Camino Real, 'The King’s Highway'," Gomez said.

He confirmed there are "no official plans" for a Californian Papal visit at this time, however it is hoped this will change.

Serra was born in Majorca, Spain in 1713, and went to the Americas in the mid-18th century. He led one of the first Franciscan missions in California.

He arrived in San Diego in 1769, spending most of his life there before dying at a mission in Carmel near Monterey in 1784.

Father Edward Benioff of the LA Archdiocese, said elevating Father Serra to sainthood was a wise decision on the part of the Pontiff.

"By canonizing a great missionary he's showing the whole church we're all called to be missionaries, Father Benioff said, "We're all called to share the love of Jesus with the whole world and to go out of our comfort zones and find those people who need hope."

However his treatment of the Native American population is controversial, as it is believed he forced the indigenous people to convert to Christianity despite resistance.

Anthony Morales, Chief Redblood of the Gabrielino Tongva Band of Mission Indians, said he was furious when he learned of the decision, and is hoping the Pope will reverse his decision.

"On all the 21 missions along the coast here our people were enslaved, they were beaten, they were tortured, our women were raped. It was forced labor and a forced religion," Morales said, "There's nothing saintly about the... atrocities on our culture, on our people."

Father Benioff, however, defended the conduct of the controversial missionary.

"He lived in a very difficult time and he did the best he could under very difficult circumstances," Father Benioff said.

In 1780, Father Serra himself wrote: "That spiritual fathers should punish their sons, the Indians, with blows appears to be as old as the conquest of the Americas; so general in fact that the saints do not seem to be any exception to the rule."

Serra, however, did push for a system of laws to protect natives from some abuses by Spanish soldiers.