Blessed Junipero’s cause: What’s taking so long?

By Father John Vaughn, OFM, Vice-Postulator for the Cause of Serra

Pope John Paul II, despite his very frail health and the rigors of transcontinental travel, came to the American continent in the summer of 2002 to canonize San Pedro San Jose Betancur in Guatemala, and San Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin in Mexico.

The question arises: why didn’t the Pope also canonize Padre Serra?

1. One reason might be the time-consuming process of examining the presumed miracles. This, I believe, is the chief reason why we are still waiting for Serra’s canonization. What might seem a very certain miracle to some people, has to be examined carefully so that religion will be respected and not ridiculed by a culture which is keen on experimental sciences rather than on theology. There is no contradiction between authentic faith and authentic science since God is the author of both.

2. The office in Rome which is in charge of investigating alleged miracles has to handle many different cases. The friars in this office are very qualified and put in long hours of dedication, but they can do only so much. This year alone they had to prepare several cases of holy people, some of them martyrs, who were beatified or canonized in in the last year or two. We have to wait our turn!

3. Many of us have grown accustomed to a fast-food, fast-track culture. Many Americans live in the fast lane; they are used to getting things done quickly, efficiently, and at the best price. The rest of the world is not on the same track.

4. Perhaps God wants us to wait and pray for more miracles. What may seem to be silence on God’s part could actually be an invitation to grow in faith.

5. Sometimes we have notices of cures which will take a good number of years to verify as a real miracle, not explainable by human science.

6. Maybe there is not enough faith around – and I am not talking about just emotional expressions of faith. Jesus did not work miracles in some places because of a lack of faith (cf. Mt 13, 58).

Some might wonder if the opposition of some Native Americans has slowed down the cause. I don’t think so. For one thing, a few vociferous objections to the beatification of Padre Serra some years ago certainly did not represent the Native American population here in California, as a whole. Further-more, we do not wish to judge a saintly person’s expressions of justice or piety by standards which have evolved in a very different culture 200 years later. We are careful not to judge our national heroes by present-day expressions of justice or racial equality; we should extend at least the same courtesy to our holy “ancestors in the faith.”

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