Kansas Catholic history a focus of international gathering

By Tim Wenzl

Southwest Kansas Register

Father McGinn, definitor general for the Franciscan Generalate in Rome, was one of 125 attending the symposium on "The Franciscan Presence in the Borderlands of North America." The site of the liturgy was Palo Duro Canyon where Father Padilla celebrated Mass during the Coronado Expedition on the feast of the Ascension in 1541.

The symposium, hosted by the Most Rev. John W. Yanta of Amarillo, drew participants from Italy, Spain, Mexico, as well as Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Rhode Island and Louisiana. There were 18 presentations about Father Padilla, other friars, and the Franciscan influence in the borderlands.

"Our goal was to raise the level of public awareness of Father Padilla and for Rome to be aware that he is the proto-martyr of North America," said Dr. Felix D. Almarza, Jr., coordinator of the symposium and professor of history at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

In opening the symposium, Bishop Yanta shared his reason for wanting to further Father Padilla’s cause and to properly document his place in history. "It was on the feast of St. Issac Jogues and Companions that I learned I was to be made a bishop. In the homily notes for that day I read ‘Issac Jogues was martyred in 1646 and he is the proto-martyr of North America.’ Well, when I became bishop of Amarillo, I was told my calendar would include a Mass for the school children in Palo Duro Canyon at the site of Father Juan de Padilla’s Mass in 1541. I later learned that Father Padilla was martyred in Kansas in 1542. I wanted to know if there had been earlier martyrs in the Americas. Was he the first martyr in the western hemisphere? After checking in Central America and South America, I found there had been no martyrs before 1542."

The keynote address "Juan de Padilla and the Franciscan Spirit" was prepared by Rev. Dr. Barnabas Diekemper, OFM. Father Diekemper’s health prevented him from traveling and his address was presented by Dr. Almaraz.

"In the formation of Juan’s spirit as a Franciscan, he learned about the missionary zeal of St. Francis...," Dr. Almaraz read. "Juan also knew about Francis’ pilgrimage to Compostela in northwestern Galicia, Spain, where Francis had prayed at the shrine of Santiago. He knew of the itinerancy of the friars....

"Juan was willing ... to expend his energies and resources to right the wrongs of ignorance and unknowingness of the indigenous peoples of the high plains. Fray Juan was willing to sacrifice life and limb for the sake of the ideal, the quest to bring the true religion to people who had not heard of Jesus Christ.

"Was it his enthusiasm to convert the plains Indians that led him to martyrdom? Was it his enthusiasm that riled the aggressor Indians to attack the group— and that inspired Juan to offer his life to save (those with him)? Juan received the arrows and spears that took his life. Did he see himself as a martyr? Was it enthusiasm that led him to offer his life for the others so that Juan might return to his Heavenly Father...?

"The death Juan endured manifested his enthusiasm for what he had learned about an after-life. It manifested his Franciscan spirit of enthusiasm — the Franciscan spirit of poverty and humility and the Franciscan spirit of enthusiasm for the Church; to bring the Good News to those who knew it not; to bring the words of salvation to those who had not heard them; all this enlivened his desire, his enthusiasm to be victim for the Word."

Bishop Yanta hoped that the symposium would inspire the Franciscans to begin the work for Father Padilla’s cause for sainthood. Dr. Almaraz confirmed after the symposium that enthusiasm was indeed generated, but it was not known which Franciscan province might take up the cause.