The New York archdiocesan annual Our Lady of Guadalupe Mass is scheduled for Tuesday, December 12, the feast day, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Cardinal Timothy Dolan will serve as principal celebrant; the homily will be delivered by Bishop Carlos Enrique Samaniego Lopez of the Primate Archdiocese of Mexico.  

Bishop Samaniego will be among the concelebrants of the 10 a.m. Spanish Mass, as well as Monsignor Diego Monroy, rector emeritus of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

As in past years, the Mass will be preceded by a street procession from the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe at St. Bernard on West 14th Street, up 8th Avenue, then east on West 50th Street to the cathedral.                   

“Our Lady of Guadalupe manifests to our faithful as a sign of her maternal care,” Wanda Vasquez, director of the archdiocesan Office of Hispanic Ministry, told The Good Newsroom. “She is incredibly significant to the Mexican people and to the entire Church; she is truly interwoven into the Mexican culture and beyond. The enthronement last year [of a portrait of Our Lady of Guadalupe at the cathedral] was an opportunity for us to be able to bring history to St. Patrick’s Cathedral; now she’s part of the history of the cathedral.” 

Vasquez also noted that in the Archdiocese of New York, “we always begin with a novena, that’s nine days before the day of the feast; our faithful gather and pray the rosary each night leading up to December 12. Our Lady of Guadalupe is first pro-life, and she is also our Mother. What’s important in the image is that she’s pregnant; the sash that’s across her waist indicates that she’s pregnant with Jesus Christ. So these are two very important components of the feast day.”

St. Juan Diego (feast day December 9), to whom Our Lady of Guadalupe first appeared, was canonized on July 31, 2002, at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico City, by Pope John Paul II, now St. John Paul II. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops notes that under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe: 

The Virgin Mary is the patroness “of Mexico, the United States, and all of the Americas, as well as the protector of unborn children… 

“In 1531, she appeared in a vision to the peasant Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill near Mexico City and charged him with asking the bishop to build a church on that spot. But the bishop demanded a sign, so Our Lady had Juan gather flowers in his cloak in December to take to the bishop. When Juan opened his cloak, the colorful image of Guadalupe was emblazoned on the cactus cloth. That icon is preserved in the most famous shrine in the Western Hemisphere and Our Lady of Guadalupe continues to inspire poor and oppressed people worldwide.”

The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., notes that St. Juan Diego “was one of the first indigenous people in the New World to embrace Catholicism. As Pope John Paul II said at Juan Diego’s canonization, ‘In accepting the Christian message without forgoing his indigenous identity, Juan Diego discovered the profound truth of the new humanity, in which all are called to be children of God. Thus he facilitated the fruitful meeting of two worlds and became the catalyst for the new Mexican identity, closely united to Our Lady of Guadalupe.’”

Along with the December 12 Mass, other related celebrations include a celebration of the Feast of St. Juan Diego on December 9 at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Vigil for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 11 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.