Americans oppose choice of Junipero Serra by Pope

Native Americans, who are opposing the canonization of Junipero, have staged protests in California and there is a move to remove his statue from the U.S. Capitol.

They say he helped wipe out native populations, enslaved converts and spread disease as he brutally imposed Christianity on them.

The Vatican on the other hand says Junipero Serra was a great evangelizer and a model for today's Hispanics.

Rev. Vincenzo Criscuolo, a spokesperson for the Vatican's saint-making office, says Junipero Serra should be seen as "a man of his time" who used corporal punishment as an educational tool. A practice which was normal in his days.

He also said: "It is not to be excluded, but it wasn't 'genocide,' it wasn't a death penalty."