Honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe
Human dignity central focus of diocesan-wide celebration

By Ambria Hammel and J.D. Long-García, The Catholic Sun
December 21, 2006

Two days before her feast day, some 2,500 Catholics honored Our Lady of Guadalupe at a diocesan-wide celebration on the streets of downtown Phoenix.

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted sought to promote human dignity and cultural unity through the procession, Mass and afternoon music festival Dec. 10.

The bishop hoped those gathered would recognize “the blessing that the Virgin Mary is for us all and the responsibility we have together to lift up the dignity of each human person.”

The bishop tapped Fr. Robert Gonzalez, a Tucson expert on Our Lady of Guadalupe, to deliver the homily.

“Her beautiful mestizo face on the tilma of Juan Diego… was and still is a call from God to be inclusive and welcoming,” Fr. Gonzalez said of the Virgin’s apparition.

Fr. Gonzalez recounted the Blessed Mother’s 1531 appearance to St. Juan Diego in Mexico. She commissioned the poor Indian to ask the local bishop to build a church that would unite the Indians and ruling Europeans.

The bishop didn’t believe Juan Diego and demanded a sign.

The Blessed Mother delivered that sign 475 years ago Dec. 12. The poor Indian presented a cloak full of fresh, fragrant flowers ordinarily doomed to freeze in winter and a depiction of the Virgin on Juan Diego’s vestment.

His doubt erased, the bishop promptly asked the poor Indian where Our Lady wanted the church.

“The temple she speaks about then and even now was not so much a physical structure, but rather a spiritual and a moral unity,” Fr. Gonzalez said.

The Virgin calls Catholics “to respect the dignity of all human beings, especially the weakest: the defenseless, the marginalized, the immigrant and the poor,” he said.

The homilist closed his bilingual talk challenging Phoenix Catholics to “embrace and live the radical message of Guadalupe.”

“It’s not easy,” he admitted. “A spiritual building made up of living stones” is “where the marginalized and those weakest are not shunned, but welcomed.”

A day of celebration

St. Catherine of Siena parishioners organized a seven-block Guadalupana procession before the outdoor Mass. Four floats featured Catholics dressed as Mary and Juan Diego to illustrate a scene from the Guadalupe story.

Live flowers and even larger blooms made of layered tissue paper adorned the floats. Some also featured children dressed as angels.

“Our culture doesn’t matter. We’ve all been brought together by the Blessed Mother,” said Linda Smock, a Holy Cross parishioner who attended the event.

“We’re all one when it comes to being a part of our heritage and being Catholic,” she added.

Matachines from various parishes and communities performed traditional Mexican dancing behind each float. These “soldiers of the Virgin” followed a drummer and added quick combinations of foot stomping and jumping to the beat.

“I think people should know we’re doing it for faith. We’re dancing to the Virgin Mary,” said Frank Perez, coordinator of Danza Guadalupana, who oversees the dancers who range from 6 to 15 years of age.

Fifty mounted horses followed the dancers.

Catholic music festival

Twenty-seven musical acts from as far away as Chile performed immediately after Mass, marking the first major celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Phoenix since 1998.

“We’re already in a race with the secularization of the Virgin of Guadalupe,” said Armando Ruiz, an event coordinator. Ruiz is with Mary’s Ministries, a major sponsor and organizer of the celebration.

“It’s incumbent upon on Church to not let this happen and keep these days holy,” he said. “The music was not for entertainment, but to praise the presence of the Lord.”

The musical group Who Do You Say I Am? from Ohio joined Bishop Olmsted in the Benediction that ended the daylong event.

As patroness of the Americas, Our Lady of Guadalupe helps Catholics realize the universality of the Church beyond parish boundaries, the bishop said.

The Blessed Mother “brought reconciliation between Europeans and the native people, despite their difference in language, culture, customs and so much more,” he said.

Our Lady continues to foster reconciliation and evangelization today, he said.

“She reminds us of the human dignity of every person, from the unborn child to the new immigrants, from homeless people to elderly persons without insurance or health care,” the bishop said.

“The Virgin Mary is our mother, is part of our history and part of our identity as Catholics,” the bishop said. “If we have Mary, we will always have Jesus.”