junipero serra
The suspects are accused of toppling a statue of St. Junípero Serra, an 18th-century Catholic missionary criticized by Indigenous activists.
Native American groups have long argued that Junipero Serra — an 18th-century California missionary — was a white supremacist and a colonizer.
Pope Francis made the controversial Spanish missionary Junipero Serra a saint just last Wednesday.
The controversial Franciscan missionary is the first saint canonized on American soil.
WHAT'S HAPPENING
Junípero Serra "created and brought genocide to the California Indian people."
The first pope from the Americas will be speaking in the predominant language of the Western Hemisphere.
