Local scholars head to Rome for Junipero Serra discussion

A panel of top experts in California history and archaeology will head to Rome Thursday, to provide an overview of the life of Junipero Serra. On Tuesday, NewsChannel 5 met with one of the local scholars nominated to talk about Serra at the Vatican.

“I was being invited and you could imagine I sat there in kind of shock thinking wait a minute did I just read that properly,” archaeology scholar Ruben Mendoza said.

It was true, Mendoza was invited to go to Rome. He leaves Tuesday morning to weigh in on why Junipero Serra should become a saint. Junipero Serra has special ties to this area and his sainthood might happen a lot sooner than other saints in the past.

There are five steps to sainthood according to the Fellowship for Catholic university students:

First, the person’s local bishop investigates their life by gathering information from witnesses of their life and any writings they may have written. If the bishop finds them to be worthy of being a saint, then he submits the information that he gathered to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

Second, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints can choose reject the application or accept it and begin their own investigation of the person’s life.

Third, if the Congregation for the Causes of Saints approves of the candidate, they can choose to declare that the person lived a life heroically virtuous life. This isn’t a declaration that the person is in heaven, but that they pursued holiness while here on earth.

Fourth, to be recognized as someone in heaven requires that a miracle has taken place through the intercession of that person. The miracle is usually a healing. The healing has to be instantaneous, permanent, and complete while also being scientifically unexplainable. Miracles have to be first verified as scientifically unexplainable by a group of independent doctors, then the person is approved by a panel of theologians, and then the final approval lies with the pope. If this is the case, a person is declared a blessed.

Fifth, a second miracle is needed in order to declare someone a saint. The confirmation of a second miracle goes through the same scrutiny as the first.

Mendoza said normally it takes at least 500 years before someone is considered to be a saint. But for father Serra it’s only been 200 years. Mendoza believes he’s well qualified to talk about this because he’s devoted years to the study of archaeology in California missions, and Father Serra, in particular.

“When it comes to Junipero Serra he was a man of his time and he did as the good shepherd would do, sought the betterment of the best in the life of the people that he oversaw,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza will be one of seven presenters on Thursday at the Vatican.