Priest Says Decision on Serra Will Free Catholic Indians for Other Work
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PHOENIX — The Vatican decision not to beatify Father Junipero Serra, founder of the California mission chain, during Pope John Paul II’s visit to the United States next month will enable Catholic American Indians to concentrate on more important concerns, a priest of the Ohlone tribe said here Thursday.
Father Michael Galvan, who is director of liturgy for the Diocese of Oakland, said the postponement of Serra’s beatification “allows Native Americans to focus on issues of greatest importance . . . such as preserving our cultures, traditions and languages.”
Galvan is in charge of planning a worship service in Phoenix on Sept. 14 with representatives of more than 200 Indian tribes. The special meeting with the Pope is expected to draw more than 15,000 Indians--most of them Catholic--from throughout the United States and Canada, according to Bishop Donald Pelotte of Gallup, N.M., the first Indian bishop in the United States.
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