Long before the language of Catholic social doctrine was formalized, the missions operated on deeply local principles.
Each California Mission functioned as its own community:
El Camino Real connected these communities, but it did not erase their local character. Authority existed, yet daily life remained rooted in place.
This is subsidiarity lived on the ground.
The missionaries brought with them agricultural knowledge shaped by centuries of European practice.
They believed that teaching farming, ranching, and production was part of bringing order and stability to life. Crops were planted, herds expanded, and systems of food and material production emerged that would later form the backbone of California’s agricultural economy.
This transformation was vast.
And it was intentional.
The land of California — already rich and fertile — was reorganized into sustained local production.
California was home to many indigenous peoples, living across an abundant and diverse landscape.
Many communities lived as hunter-gatherers, deeply connected to the land through seasonal movement, tradition, and survival. The mission system brought dramatic change — drawing people into fixed settlements, new labor systems, and unfamiliar ways of life.
Some knowledge was shared.
Much was disrupted.
Nothing remained untouched.
The Catholic Mission does not look away from this tension.