Our Lady of Guadalupe Mass focuses on plight of immigrants
Worshippers gather for multilingual service
The worshippers brought scores of roses before a large image of Our Lady of Guadalupe — most of the blossoms red, some of them pink or white or yellow. All of them seemed visitors from another season on a dark and wintry evening.
In doing so Tuesday night, the devotees were paying tribute to the one honored by Catholics as the patroness of the Americas.
Hundreds of Latino and other Catholics gathered in St. Paul Cathedral in Oakland for the annual celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a festive, multilingual Mass.
Many of the Latino worshippers wore white blouses and shirts embroidered in red, green and other patterns that recall the traditional costumes of their ancestral lands.
Throughout the Mass they sang in English and Spanish, accompanied by traditional guitar, flute and other instruments.
Our Lady of Guadalupe is an object of particular devotion from Latino Catholics. This year as well as last, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops urged a focus on the plight of immigrants and refugees in conjunction with the commemorations, given the large numbers of Latino Catholics who are immigrants, many without legal status.
According to tradition, the Virgin Mary appeared to an Aztec peasant, Juan Diego, in 1531, inspiring the conversions of many indigenous peoples in Mexico to Catholicism. The late Pope John Paul II recognized Juan Diego as a saint in 2002.
According to the story of the apparition, the Virgin Mary told St. Juan Diego to gather up roses in his mantle, and when he opened it in front of the skeptical bishop, Mary’s image was miraculously imprinted on it.
Whether because of the bad weather or other factors, this year’s attendance appeared lower than last year’s, which took place shortly after the election of President Donald Trump and in which anxiety over his pledged immigration crackdown was palpable.
Auxiliary Bishop William J. Waltersheid, in the homily, referred indirectly to such anxieties as he urged worshipers to recognize Mary’s presence today as vividly as in the long-ago apparition in Mexico.
Just as she brings “roses in the middle of December,” she brings blessings “for us in the cold and dark Decembers of our lives.”
That, he said, includes “when we are far from home, when we are separated from our families and loved ones and worry about them,” and when “we fear what will happen to us.”
At the end of the service, Bishop David Zubik renewed the pledge to support Latino immigrants that he made at last year’s service.
“You are an important part of our diocese,” Bishop Zubik said. “You have helped the Diocese of Pittsburgh to become richer because of your strong faith.”
Bishop Zubik, himself the grandson of Polish and Slovak immigrants, said he knows “something of why you came to this country and why it is so important that you remain in this country, and in our diocese.”
He added: “I will do, we as church will do, everything we can to convince our government to keep it so.”