to touch hearts, a man who knows that the world needs a pastor, whether the world thinks of its needs in those terms or not and that is what he s trying to bring here. the robust defense of religious liberty at the white house this morning was a tip of the papal skull cap, if you will, to his american bishops who had been contesting that issue for several years now. and a signal to them that he is firmly in their corner in that fight. i think what we re going to see this afternoon is the spiritual heart of this entire pilgrimage. junipero serra is for pope francis a role model for all catholics. he s a man who left a comfortable academic career to sail literally to what he thought of was the ends of the earth. 6,000 miles awe to bring the good news of jesus christ, to
mass which begins at 4:15 eastern time here. 25,000 people are expected including 3 supreme court justices and republican presidential candidate jeb bush and his wife. the person who s going to be canonized made a saint is father junipero i apologize for pronunciation but father excuse me, junipero serra. he is a franciscan priest who worked in california in the late 1700s. he founded missions that became the major cities of california. but his canonization is very controversial because native americans say he abused their ancestors. he is accused of using corporal punishment on the male native americans while he was trying to protect the women and the children of their tribes. he s also accused of helping the spanish army as they went up the coast of california and as the
spanish army moved they brought diseases with them that the native americans could not fight off and as a result half of them died. native american tribes here in the u.s. have asked pope francis not to canonize father serra but it will happen and for this reason. because, first of all, pope francis believes father serra is a great example of evangelism. getting among the people and bringing the word of god. the other thing is the pope really believe that is it s important to have saints from your native countries so all the spants in the catholic church are not from europe and italy but they are people who people around the world can relate to. when he was in korea, he did the the same things happened. he created korean saints. he s creating an american sapt here and the highlight of his day.
junipero, a very controversial figure. on one side, he s revered because he is an 18th century franciscan missionary who came to the united states to california and started evangelizing along the coast. now, where does the controversy come? well, a lot of native americans and latino groups have said that, you know, it s a bleeding wound that reminds them of a time when their culture, their language, was ripped from them. but the catholic church does defend this man. they re cannonizing him. they re making him a saint. so that s what we re going to see later today. you can see the preparations going on. a lot of empty seats right now, but they re not going to be empty for long, christiane and anderson, because there are so many people waiting on the sidelines to fill these seats. yeah. i was at the campus last night, and there were, you know, hundreds of students out there. there s just incredible excitement, obviously, on that campus. not everybody is going to even