'Junípero Serra,' by Rose Marie Beebe and Robert M. Senkewicz

Aloysius Gonzaga needs rescuing from the hands of overly pious artists.

(Because, you know, Romero wasn't political.)

I once heard Dorothy say, “When they call you a saint, it means basically that you are not to be taken seriously.”

If for a second Óscar Romero had glanced through the open doors of the chapel, would he have seen the young man taking aim? Would he have been afraid? Would he have been tempted to flee?

Serra is known today as the “Apostle of California,” having built in the late 18th century a network of 21 missions that stretched the entire southern half of the state from San Diego to San Francisco.