Saint Junipero Serra and the Precious Blood

I'm going to attend Mass twice today, God willing: first in the Ordinary Form for the memorial of Saint Junipero Serra and then in the Extraordinary Form for the Feast of the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I want to offer the first Mass in expiation for the outrages committed against Saint Junipero Serra and at the second pray for the Precious Blood of Jesus to heal our country.

I'll also be remembering Saint Oliver Plunkett, the last Catholic priest executed at Tyburn, Blessed Thomas Maxfield, one of the 85 Martyrs of England and Wales from the reign of James I, and the trial of St. Thomas More at Westminster Hall 485 years ago today.

If you see me driving down the street, be careful: I might be distracted with so much on my mind!

Five years ago (2015), when Pope Francis was going to visit the USA and was set to canonize Junipero Serra, there was a lot of controversy. Matt Swaim, Anna Mitchell, and I were doing a series on Catholic historical apologetics that year on the Son Rise Morning Show and cited this historian's commentary, Professor Ruben Mendoza of California State University, Monterey Bay, in our segment on those who attacked Serra and the Catholic Church for abuse of Native Americans:

The professor has been involved in research and conservation projects at several California missions founded by Serra. He said many of the Spanish missionary's critics are confusing the impact of Spanish colonizing and missionary activity on the native communities with what happened after California became a U.S. territory in 1848.

"A decimation of the Native American population," Mendoza said, occurred "in the period after 1850; Serra had no connection to that phenomenon. Those who criticize Serra the most tend to conflate the American period with that of the missionaries."

Another major objection to Serra's canonization involves reports that Native American adults at his mission were beaten.

"There is no documentation that Serra himself abused any Native American," Mendoza said. "The system under which he operated did use corporal punishment, but that was also used for transgressors from all walks of life, including soldiers."

Mendoza supports the canonization and said he believes it "has much to offer the peoples of Latin America, especially those of us of Mexican-Indian heritage who currently live under a shadow of doubt and denigration."

More about Saint Junipero Serra here. Pope Francis spoke of the newly-canonized saint in his homily at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D.C. Wednesday, September 23, 2015:

Today we remember one of those witnesses who testified to the joy of the Gospel in these lands, Father Junípero Serra. He was the embodiment of “a Church which goes forth”, a Church which sets out to bring everywhere the reconciling tenderness of God. Junípero Serra left his native land and its way of life. He was excited about blazing trails, going forth to meet many people, learning and valuing their particular customs and ways of life. He learned how to bring to birth and nurture God’s life in the faces of everyone he met; he made them his brothers and sisters. Junípero sought to defend the dignity of the native community, to protect it from those who had mistreated and abused it. Mistreatment and wrongs which today still trouble us, especially because of the hurt which they cause in the lives of many people.

Father Serra had a motto which inspired his life and work, not just a saying, but above all a reality which shaped the way he lived: siempre adelante! Keep moving forward! For him, this was the way to continue experiencing the joy of the Gospel, to keep his heart from growing numb, from being anesthetized. He kept moving forward, because the Lord was waiting. He kept going, because his brothers and sisters were waiting. He kept going forward to the end of his life. Today, like him, may we be able to say: Forward! Let’s keep moving forward!

Image Credit: shared under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license: Statue of Saint Junípero Serra in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, recently desecrated.

Last week I received my copy of the new Magnificat Adoration Companion, which happily contains both the Litany to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Litany of the Precious Blood of Jesus. The entire month of July is dedicated to our devotion towards the Precious Blood of Jesus by which we are redeemed:

The Precious Blood which we worship is the Blood which the Savior shed for us on Calvary and reassumed at His glorious Resurrection; it is the Blood which courses through the veins of His risen, glorified, living body at the right hand of God the Father in heaven; it is the Blood made present on our altars by the words of Consecration; it is the Blood which merited sanctifying grace for us and through it washes and beautifies our soul and inaugurates the beginning of eternal life in it.

Blood of Christ, only-begotten Son of the Eternal Father, Save us.
Blood of Christ, Incarnate Word of God, Save us.
Blood of Christ, of the New and Eternal Testament, Save us.
Blood of Christ, falling upon the earth in the Agony, Save us.
Blood of Christ, shed profusely in the Scourging, Save us.
Blood of Christ, flowing forth in the Crowning with Thorns, Save us.
Blood of Christ, poured out on the Cross, Save us.
Blood of Christ, price of our salvation, Save us.
Blood of Christ, without which there is no forgiveness. Save us. . . .

The Fortnight for Freedom: July 1 at the Tower and at Tyburn

Today is the first Friday of the month, so my husband and I will attend Noon Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception here in Wichita, with 30 minutes of Adoration after Mass and Benediction. The Cathedral has hosted 24 hours of Adoration and Confession for the First Fridays during the Year of Mercy. Since this First Friday is during the Fortnight for Freedom, there is much to meditate on, particularly these three anniversaries:

I. St. Thomas More was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death on July 1, 1535:

Those set to try him were: Sir Thomas Audley, Lord Chancellor, Sir Richard Leicester, Thomas Duke of Norfolk, Sir John Port, Sir John Fitz-James, Sir John Spelman, Lord Chief Justice, Sir John Baldwin Sir Walter Luke, and Sir Anthony Fitz-Herbert. Like St. John Fisher, he was very weak after his long imprisonment in the Tower of London and was allowed to sit at his trial. Those set to judge him as his jury were: Sir Thomas Palmer, KNT., Falper Leake, Gent., Sir Thomas Peirt, Knt. William Browne, Gent., George Lovell, Esq; Thomas Billington, Gent.,Thomas Burbage, Esq; John Parnel, Gent., Geoffry Chamber, Gent. Richard Bellame, Gent., Edward Stockmore, Gent. George Stoakes, Gent.--and after hearing the evidence against More, which was mostly Sir Richard Rich's perjury, they found him guilty within 15 minutes!

Even though More tried one last time to defend himself, he was sentenced to the execution meted out for traitors:

That he should be carried back to the Tower of Lon­don, by the Help of William Kingston, Sheriff, and from thence drawn on a Hurdle through the City of London to Tyburn, there to be hanged till he should be half dead; that then he should be cut down alive, his Privy Parts cut off, his Belly ripped, his Bowels burnt, his four Quarters sit up over four Gates of the City: and his Head upon London-Bridge.

His daughter Margaret met him on the way back to the Tower of London.

II. Also, on July 1 in 1616, Blessed Thomas Maxfield was executed at Tyburn:

On Wednesday, 26 June, he was brought to the bar at the Old Bailey, and the next day was condemned solely for being a priest, under 27 Eliz., c, 2. The Spanish ambassador did his best to obtain a pardon, or at least a reprieve; but, finding his efforts unavailing, had solemn exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in his chapel during the martyr's last night on earth. The procession to Tyburn early on the following morning was joined by many devout Spaniards, who, in spite of insults and mockery, persisted in forming a guard of honour for the martyr. Tyburn-tree itself was found decorated with garlands, and the ground round about strewn with sweet herbs. The sheriff ordered the martyr to be cut down alive, but popular feeling was too strong, and the disemboweling did not take place till he was quite senseless. 

He was beatified by Pope St. John Paul II as one of the 85 Martyrs of England and Wales.

III. Finally, on July 1 in 1681, St. Oliver Plunkett was the last Catholic priest executed at Tyburn Tree; he was the last victim of the Popish Plot's anti-Catholic, anti-Jesuit hysteria to be executed--but he was not a Jesuit, nor an English missionary priest. St. Oliver Plunkett was the Archbishop of Armagh, the Primate of Catholics in Ireland. He was the ultimate bogey-man to the Anglicans of England, for he was the embodiment of Catholic resistance to English rule in Ireland and all the English attempts, from Elizabeth I's reign, to bring Catholic Ireland under Anglican rule. He was tried twice on charges of conspiracy against Charles II--once in Ireland where he was acquitted and again in England where he was found guilty. He could not be found guilty for being a priest in England under the old Elizabethan statute since he had been brought to England by authorities, and there was no real proof of any conspiracy with the French to overthrow Charles II, but he was still found guilty and the sentence carried out:

On the 1st July 1681, he was dragged on a sledge from Newgate prison, before a noisy crowd, a distance of three kilometers to Tyburn. The keeper of Newgate when asked how the prisoner was, replied that he had slept soundly and that he was as unconcerned as if he was going to a wedding. From the three cornered gallows at Tyburn, Archbishop Oliver in a prepared speech, refuted his accusers point by point and forgave all of them, including the judges, and those who had given evidence against him at the trial: "I beg of my Saviour to grant them true repentance, I do forgive them with all my heart."

Oliver's theme of reconciliation continued, by his asking forgiveness of all those whom he had ever offended by thought, word or deed. He prayed: "I beseech your Divine Majesty by the merits of Christ and the intercession of his Blessed Mother and all the holy angels and saints to forgive me my sins and to grant my soul eternal rest."

Kneeling he recited an act of contrition, the Miserere psalm and he repeated before his death, the prayer of Jesus on the cross: "Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my Spirit". St. Oliver worked tirelessly as Archbishop for ten years, paying the ultimate price of martyrdom without seeing the fruits of his labours, and his crowning glory was the manner of his death, humble, heroic and holy. Several priests were close by and they blessed and absolved him at the point of his death. He may have been already dead when he was taken down and the further mutilation began. A fire had been prepared to consume his remains, his head was thrown into it, but it was quickly recovered and scorch marks may still be discerned on the left cheek. His demeanour and his speech from the scaffold were well received and it was patently obvious to many that he was innocent, as the plot had already shown signs of crumbling.

Charles II knew that Archbishop Plunkett was being framed but he did nothing because it was not politically expedient to protect a Catholic priest from injustice. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Earl of Essex, Arthur Capell, recognized the injustice of Plunkett's trial, conviction, and execution and Charles excoriated him: "his blood be on your head - you could have saved him but would not, I would save him and dare not". Oliver Plunkett was beatified by Pope Benedict XV and Pope Paul VI canonized him in 1975.