Our Lady of Guadalupe transcends borders, brings us together, says Texas archbishop

(OSV News) — Our Lady of Guadalupe continues to bring us together at a time when the world needs “our unity, our friendship and our collaboration” more than ever, said San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller in videos published by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on Dec. 12, the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

“The tender voice of Our Lady of Guadalupe continues to echo,” said the archbishop, citing the words the Virgin Mary said to St. Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill in 1531: “I am truly your compassionate mother, yours and of all the people who live together in this land.”

These words, Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller said, “transcend languages and borders which did not exist at that time.”

“They remind us that Mary is the mother and queen of the new world. After years of war, when many hearts were broken and cultures wounded, God sent his mother as a bridge of mercy,” he said. “Through her presence, millions came to know the true God who gives us life, and her message is as relevant now as it was then.”

The story of Our Lady of Guadalupe

In 1531, Mary appeared four times to St. Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill near what is now Mexico City, asking for a church to be built in her honor on that site. On his way to Mass, he was stopped by the appearance of a brown-skinned woman bathed in light and speaking in his native language, Nahuatl.

St. Juan Diego saw Mary again on Dec. 12, now the official feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. He found Castilian roses and carried them in his tilma, or cloak, to bring to Bishop Juan de Zumarraga as a sign of the apparitions, which the bishop had doubted. Once in the bishop’s presence, Juan Diego opened his cloak and roses tumbled out, revealing the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe miraculously traced on the cloak. 

“Her image, radiant and mestiza, became a sign of unity, speaking both to the native peoples and to the newcomers, teaching that in the Lord Jesus we are one family, one,” said Archbishop García-Siller. And through her, “this hemisphere lived a process of evangelization perfectly united with its own culture.”

Following St. Juan Diego’s encounter with Mary, there were mass conversions to Catholicism in Mexico. Some historians speak of over 10 million baptisms in the decades following the apparition. The devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe has expanded well beyond Mexico — through the Americas and around the world — and the basilica in Mexico City, where the tilma with the image of Mary is housed, remains one of the most visited Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world.

“The Lord reveals his grace to the lowly”

In his Dec. 12 video, Archbishop García-Siller also said that in choosing a humble Indigenous man for this message, the archbishop added, she showed that “the Lord reveals his grace to the lowly.”

The Guadalupe apparition was approved by the Catholic Church in 1555. Our Lady of Guadalupe was first declared “Patroness of the Americas” by Pope Pius XII in 1946, a title later reaffirmed by St. John Paul II. Canonized in 2002, Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin is the first Catholic saint indigenous to the Americas. St. John Paul II also formally named Our Lady of Guadalupe patroness of the Americas and of the New Evangelization.

“Today, here in the United States, a land of many peoples and faces, Our Lady of Guadalupe continues to bring us together,” Archbishop García-Siller said in his video reflections, published English and Spanish.

Remembering the words of Pope Leo XIV, the archbishop said that now, “more than ever” the world needs “our unity, our friendship and our collaboration.”

“She invites us to see one another as children under her mantle, with her maternal care,” he said. “She leads us always to Jesus, the Prince of Peace, and calls us to build a civilization of love.” 

“Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of the Americas, pray for us,” he concluded.

To watch the videos, go to https://www.youtube.com/@UsccbOrg.

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