The first two Hispanic Ministry Masses at St. Patrick’s Cathedral for the 2024-25 season are scheduled for Sunday, September 8. 

The Mass of the Divine Child is at 2 p.m., and the Mass of Our Lady of Charity will be celebrated at 4 p.m.    

Mass celebration for the Divine Child Jesus is a Colombian custom, but it is also promoted as a children’s Mass planned by the Children’s Parish Groups. Liturgies in honor of Our Lady of Charity, a Cuban tradition, are planned by the Our Lady of Charity Committee. [The Office of Hispanic Ministry will be scheduling celebrants in the coming days.]

“It is very important to instill this devotion to the Divine Child, especially in children – this love for our Lord, Jesus Christ, when He was a little child,” Rosana Malaver, a lead organizer of the Mass of the Divine Child, told The Good Newsroom in an August 22 phone interview. “And this Mass is a beautiful way to reunite people from the Colombian community here (in the New York metro area),” added Malaver, who is an active volunteer at the Church of the Assumption in Peekskill.              

The Divino Niño, also known as Divino Niño de Bogotá or Divine Child Jesus, is a wooden statue of the child Jesus originating from Bogota, Colombia. A cross originally in the back was removed upon purchase in 1935 at a Bogota store by an Italian Salesian priest, Father Giovanni Rizzo, assigned to Colombia.    

The 17-centimeter-high (6.7 inches) statue with arms outstretched and wearing a traditional pink robe or tunic has an inscription “Yo reinaré” (“I will reign”) at its base, an inscription requested by Father Rizzo. It is one of the most popular religious images in Colombia, especially among Catholics; it reportedly has miraculous powers of healing.  

Story of the Cuban Virgin of Charity

In 1612, an African slave and two indigenous Cubans rowed a boat to collect salt in the Bay of Nipe; they spotted a 16-inch statue of Mary on a tablet floating on the waves. In the statue’s left hand was baby Jesus, and in the right a cross. A sign beneath the statue said, “I am the Virgin of Charity.” The statue’s clothing was miraculously dry. 

“For us Cubans, this word (charity) has a great and beautiful meaning because it is the name of our Mother and Patroness. Our Lady of Charity, as an image, is a symbol of the ‘cubanía’ (that which pertains to all things Cuban) that unites all Cubans, believers and unbelievers alike,”  Archbishop Dionisio G. García Ibáñez of Santiago de Cuba wrote in 2012 in anticipation of a papal visit from Pope Benedict XVI that year, the 400th anniversary of the finding of the statue.

“But charity, love, is the only virtue that can make possible that all Cubans be brothers and sisters to one another. The opposite of charity is hate; hate doesn’t build anything, and division doesn’t build anything. The devil is the father of lies and disunion, but charity is what unites us, and it always comes from God. That’s why the Holy Father comes to visit,” added Archbishop Garcia, who was then-president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba.