Book Review - Christian Clifford - Meet Pablo Tac: Indian from the Far Shores of California

 I grew up as a teenager in Orange County California. My mom had a great love for the California missions.  We visited all of them in the southern California area.  I became a Catholic missionary as an adult, taking me places like Africa, Canada, South America, and the Mississippi Delta.  One of my heroes is Father Junipero Serra, a saint in the Catholic Church.  I am now a Catholic priest myself serving in the Diocese of Jackson in the state of Mississippi.  As a priest and as a missionary, unfortunately, I often feel under attack.  In recent years, some of the historic missions in California have been vandalized or have been under attack.  I am thankful for authors like Christian Clifford who tell a side of the story that we often do not hear.  His joy and enthusiasm for history and for his Catholic faith and for the history of the California missions comes out in his writing.  

Mr Clifford is a frequent collaborator on the California Mission Walkers Facebook Page, a group of pilgrims who have brought back an interest in hiking the route of the California missions and celebrating that part of California history.  My mom taught me to appreciate the history of the California mission.  I learned how the history of the California missions is an essential part of the history of the state of California.   My dream is to hike the trail one day.  Christian Clifford is a pioneer in reviving interest and appreciation for the California mission trail and the history of the California missions.  

As a priest, I have a great interest in the saints.  I feel that each saint has something to teach us.  Perhaps Pablo Tac will become a saint one day.  I had never heard of him before, so I very much appreciated hearing his story told in interesting way by Mr Clifford.  He tells Pablo Tac’s story in the context of the missionaries who brought the Gospel to California.  It was fascinating to hear how the mission records from Mission San Luis Rey were found in a bookstore in Barcelona, Spain in the early twentieth century.  I also loved how the author used Pablo Tac’s own words to describe what life in the mission was like.  Pablo’s story of how he traveled to Europe to study to be a priest himself was certainly interesting, even though his life ended before the fulfillment of this goal.  Clifford's description of the sainthood and the process of becoming a saint was very thorough and would be very illuminating especially with someone unfamiliar with that process.  Our Diocese of Jackson is putting forth Sister Thea Bowman into that process, so I am familiar as to how complex it actually is.  I have read three of this author’s books and look forward to the publication of his next book.  I highly recommend him.  Thank you Christian Clifford for this wonderful book.