Music Appreciation

Linda Ronstadt on her new book, Parkinson’s disease, racism and religion: ‘I’m a practicing atheist’

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2022/09/22/linda-ronstadt-on-her-new-book-parkinsons-disease-racism-and-religion-im-a-practicing-atheist/

Letter to the Pope
The book also includes a chapter entitled “Wait a Minute, Your Holiness,” which recounts the letter she and her friend, Reverend Mary Moreno-Richardson, sent to Pope Francis seven years ago.

“When I learned in 2015 that Pope Francis had apologized to Indigenous peoples for the brutal harm done to them by the Catholic Church in colonial times but was also about to canonize the Franciscan missionary Junípero Serra, one of the brutalizers, the dissonance was too much to bear,” she writes.

The letter concludes: “Our concern is that to canonize him would not only be an affront to the California Indians that survive, it would tarnish the images of the saints we cherish. We implore you to reconsider the canonization of Junípero Serra.”

Serra was indeed canonized later in 2015. Did Ronstadt expect Pope Francis to respond to her written plea?

“I’m sure he never saw my letter,” she said. “But I felt I needed to write it no matter and put it in the book.”

Ronstadt sputtered good-naturedly when asked if she was no longer a practicing Catholic.

“I’m a practicing atheist,” Ronstadt said. “But I like this Pope and I think he would do more if he could. I think he’d let priests marry and would (OK) gay marriage.”