LOS ANGELES — An effort to remove the statue of Blessed Junipero Serra from the U.S. Capitol has been set aside for the time being.

A statue of Franciscan missionary and saint-to-be Father Junipero Serra has stood in the U.S. Capitol since 1931. However, a proposal in the state legislature would have removed it and replaced it with a statue of astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman to travel to space.

According to the Los Angeles Times, a vote on the proposal was postponed, after the lawmaker who authored it, state Sen. Ricardo Lara, noted the timing of Pope Francis’ trip to the United States this fall, where he will formally declare Blessed Serra a saint. The senator has requested that the proposal be re-considered at a later date.

State legislatures have the authority to decide which two statues will represent their state at the U.S. Capitol.

Blessed Serra’s statue is currently in the National Statuary Hall Collection. His statue cradles a church in his left arm and holds a cross aloft in his outstretched right arm. The website of the Architect of the Capitol, which maintains the statue, describes Father Serra as “one of the most important Spanish missionaries in the New World.”

Several lawmakers had objected to the proposal to remove the statue, given Blessed Serra’s upcoming canonization, questioning the message that it would send.

The resolution to remove the statue had already passed the state senate, by a 22-10 vote.

Blessed Junipero Serra played a leading role in California history, helping to convert thousands of native Californians to Christianity and teaching them new technologies. The 18th-century priest founded many of the missions that would go on to become the centers of major California cities.

In a May 2 homily, Pope Francis called Blessed Serra “one of the founding fathers of the United States, a saintly example of the Church’s universality and special patron of the Hispanic people of the country.”

The Pope will canonize Father Serra Sept. 23 during his visit to Washington. The priest was beatified Sept. 25, 1988, by St. John Paul II.

 

Campaign of Support

The proposal to remove the statue of the soon-to-be saint was shelved following a heavy campaign to save it. A Spanish-language website, “Salvemos a Serra” or “Let’s Save Serra,” had called on Californians to write their legislators in opposition to the resolution.

“U.S. Hispanics need your support to maintain the presence of our first saint in the U.S. Capitol,” the website said.

“Salvemos a Serra” had also asked supporters of Blessed Serra to sign English- and Spanish-language petitions on the website CitizenGo.org. More than 47,000 did so.

The petitions ask legislators to “defend the memory of this Founding Father of California, who protected the Native Americans and had a key role in the formation of this country.”

The petitions were posted by Alejandro Bermudez, executive director of Catholic News Agency.

“In a state that counts Hispanics as its largest ethnic group, California’s elected leaders are about to banish the first and one of the only two Hispanics from statuary hall,” Bermudez said in a May 22 essay at the Latino media website NewsTaco.

“To add insult to injury, they plan to go on the record with this just in time to welcome the first Latin-American pope in history to the United States,” he added. “It’s quite the insult to the Pope, who will visit the Capitol and canonize Serra during his September visit — making him the first saint to be named by a pope on American soil.”

Some activist groups have attacked Blessed Serra as a symbol of European colonialism and have characterized the missions as engaged in the forced labor of Native Americans, sometimes claiming Blessed Serra himself was abusive.

Many of Blessed Serra’s defenders vigorously dispute the claims, noting the many natives he helped during his life and their outpouring of grief at his death.