On the
day of her feast, December 12, 1999, at the turn of the third
millennium, a permanent image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was
dedicated at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart during and
English-Spanish bilingual Mass concelebrated by Msgr. Charles
Kelly, Vicar General and Rector of the Cathedral, Msgr. Thomas
Shreve, Vicar General, Msgr. Michael Schmied (Vicar for the Hispanic Apostolate from 1996 to 2006), and other priests of our diocese.
The image is a life size replica of the original on the main altar at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. It was acquired by Msgr. Schmied and Elisa Montalvo (Director of the Office for the Hispanic Apostolate from 1996-2006), at the Basilica, where it was blessed by its Rector on July 4, 1999.
The Virgin of Guadalupe, proclaimed on October 12, 1945 by His Holiness Pope Pius XI as "Empress of the Americas," has also been declared by Pope John Paul II as the Star of the New Evangelization, "new in ardor, methods and expression". In his Apostolic Exhortation, ECCLESIA IN AMERICA, the Holy Father spoke of America in the singular to unite North, Central, South America, and the Caribbean, in one entity: the New World, which was born Catholic more than 500 years ago.
Catholicism came to America in 1492. The encounter between the European conquerors and the First Nation peoples was extremely painful, marked by war and disease. By 1531 many Native Americans believed their existence had come to an end and only a few had adopted the new foreign religion. It was not until the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe to Saint Juan Diego that a message of a loving God was revealed and around eight million people converted to Christianity.
Our Lady appeared to Saint Juan Diego, a poor indigenous man, in the middle of the Advent season in 1531, wearing the Aztec sash of a pregnant woman. Her features were those of a mestiza woman, the new race created by the merging of the Old and the New World. She spoke to him in Nahuatl, his native language, and asked him to go to his bishop and request that a temple be built on the hill of Tepeyac, where she appeared.
Juan Diego went to his bishop, Juan de Zumárraga, who did not believe his story. Feeling unworthy and defeated, Juan Diego tried to avoid encountering the Virgin again, but she kept appearing and encouraging him to fulfill his mission, although he begged her to choose somebody more prestigious, more important. Finally, on December 12, she provided him with roses of Castile, that were not in season, as proof of her apparitions. Juan Diego carried the roses in his tilma, a coarse cloak of cactus fiber. When the roses fell at the bishop's feet, imprinted in the tilma appeared the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe that today is enshrined in the Basilica on the hill of Tepeyac in Mexico City, the temple which was finally built as a result of the miracle.
Our Lady of Guadalupe is now enshrined at our own Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Richmond. As she restored dignity to Juan Diego and his people and requested for a temple to be built where all would be welcome, we must build in our hearts temples of love for all people, especially the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the oppressed. As St. Juan Diego had done, we can listen and carry her message to evangelize the world that surrounds us, transforming a culture of death into a Culture of Life. She will always accompany us on our journey with the words that she spoke to St. Juan Diego: "Do not let your countenance and heart be troubled. Am I not here your mother? Are you not under my shadow and my protection?"