The Catholic League's Bill Donohue blasted the L.A. Times in a Tuesday press release for hyping the recent protest of a dozen left-wing protesters objecting to Pope Francis's decision to canonize 18th-century missionary Juinipero Serra. By contrast, the liberal newspaper failed to cover the thousands of pro-lifers who marched in Los Angeles on January 17, 2015.
In his statement, Donahue took the liberal publication to task for not covering the "One Life" march in Los Angeles (note: MRC President Brent Bozell serves on the board of advisors for the Catholic League):
On January 17, a crowd of 15,000, many of them young people, took to the streets of Los Angeles to participate in the first "One Life" march, a demonstration in support of the rights of unborn children.
On February 1, 10 people demonstrated outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels to protest the proposed canonization of Father Junipero Serra, the priest who brought Christianity to California.
Guess which event the Los Angeles Times ignored and which one it covered?
Across the nation, the Washington Post covered the Los Angeles pro-life march, and the newswire in Times Square highlighted it. But the L.A. Times effectively censored it, even though the demonstration was held one block from its headquarters. Its omission of this huge event, and its flagging of the tiny protest, are a reflection of its politics: the Times is pro-abortion and not exactly Catholic-friendly.
The non-event protest was the work of the ill-named Mexica Movement. In fact, there is no movement: there is just a handful of Christian-bashing, European-hating activists. In 2000, a Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail, counted a "few dozen members" who showed up to protest Elton Johns' appearance at Tower Records in Los Angeles (he allegedly sang a "racist song" on the soundtrack of the film, "The Road to El Dorado"). In other words, 15 years ago this rag-tag group marshaled more activists than it did last Sunday. Some "movement.
The few who protested Father Serra showed how low-class they are when they compared the priest to the devil and Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez to Hitler. For good reasons, Gomez is well-liked by minorities, though his few detractors garner the news. Shame on the L.A. Times for profiling them.
Correspondent Gale Holland led her Sunday item, "Protesters confront parishioners over Serra canonization," by noting how demonstrators held "a sign depicting Archbishop Jose Gomez with a toothbrush mustache and a swastika medallion" and rallied outside the Catholic cathedral in Los Angeles earlier that day. She continued by quoting the leader of the protest:
Olin Tezcatlipoca, director of the Mexica Movement, an indigenous-rights group, said Serra and the California mission system he founded were responsible for the Spanish "genocide" of native peoples. Gomez, who heads the Los Angeles Archdiocese and has called Serra one of his "spiritual heroes," refused to meet to discuss the group's objections, Tezcatlipoca said.
"Serra set up forced labor camps, death camps," Tezcatlipoca said as the group gathered in front of the Father Serra statue across from Olvera Street for the short march to the gates of the cathedral. "Women and children were raped the same way as the pedophile priests, and the church has hidden that."
Holland also explained that "the Mexica Movement...has taken part in local immigration and other protests since the 1990s." However, she failed to give the group any kind of ideological label. The Mexica Movement make their radical views clear on their website. They claim that Thanksgiving and Columbus Day celebrate the "genocidal and immoral actions of European colonialism." The group also likens Christopher Columbus to Hitler.
The L.A. Times journalist did later quote from supporters of the soon-to-be canonized historical figure:
...Father Ken Laverone, a Sacramento priest who has helped lead the West Coast Franciscans' campaign for Serra's canonization, said critics are trying to judge an 18th century man through a 21st century lens.
"To blame Serra specifically is putting the blame in the wrong place," Laverone said. "He considered Native Americans as human beings."
...Vincent Rodriguez, a parishioner from Echo Park, confronted the demonstrators, saying, "Don't you guys believe in forgiveness?"
"Don't you believe in respect?" said Rodriguez, 53, a social service outreach worker. "You're hating the world."
