If Junípero Serra Were Alive: Missiological-Anthropological Theory Today
The missionary effort of the Church has been sometimes judged rather harshly and often quite unfairly. This is not to deny that missionaries have somehow always shared with their contemporaries not only the human goodness, idealism, and heroism of their times but also the ignorance, paternalism, racism, and imperialism that happened to be a part of the age itself. Above all, missionaries have been repeatedly caught in the questionable marriage between Church and State. It is, of course, easy to pass judgment on past mistakes in light of our present-day knowledge, attitudes, opportunities, and general cultural and social context and to forget that a generation or two from now it will be our turn to be similarly criticized and condemned for what is impossible for us to know or to appreciate in our times. Junipero Serra, despite the shortcomings that might be pointed out regarding his missionary methods, was certainly one of the greatest frontiersmen the Americas have ever seen, one of the greatest friends the American Indians have ever known, and one of the greatest missionary saints the Church has ever produced.