A replica of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe has a special place in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York (USA), known as the “city that never sleeps”.
“Guadalupana” has been there since the early 1990s, when an image was put forward by the Primate Archbishop of Mexico, Cardinal Ernesto Coripio y Ahumada.
Every year the cathedral hosts celebrations for the central festival of the Virgin of Guadalupe on 12 December, which begin with the traditional singing of “mannitas” inside the temple, with devotees accompanied by mariachis around midnight.
Hispanic people in New York number approximately 3.9 million, representing approximately 20% of the city’s population. Mexicans are the third Hispanic group in the “Big Apple” after Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, with a total population of about 470,000.
On December 12, 2022, nearly three decades after the appearance of the first image of the Virgin, an exact replica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and an icon of St. Juan Diego, her seer, were enthroned in the Cathedral of St. Patrick by the archbishop. Of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan.
The ceremony was attended by three Mexican bishops: Mons Ramon Castro, Secretary General of the Conference of the Mexican Episcopate (CEM); Bishop Hector Pérez Villarreal, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Mexico; and Bishop Alfonso Miranda Guardiola, Auxiliary Bishop of Monterrey.
Victims of trafficking next to the heart of the Virgin of Guadalupe
Sculpture next to the chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe in March this year”let the oppressed go free(Set the Oppressed Free), by Canadian artist Timothy Schmalz, depicting Saint Josephine Bakhita, the patron saint of trafficking victims, freeing the victims from modern slavery.
“The Oppressed Go Free” sculpture in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Credit: Courtesy of Horacio Ramos.
According to The Good Newsroom, an informational initiative of the Archdiocese of New York, Father Enrique Salvo, rector of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, emphasized that the location relates to the fact that “Latin America is a common place where human trafficking tragedies occur. People”.
“Mother of All Nations”
Father Eduardo Chávez, who is considered one of the leading experts on the visions of the Mother of God of Guadalupe, told ACI Prensa that the Virgin of Tepeyac is “the mother of all people”. That is why his brown skin, his mestizo skin: it is the unity of all peoples beyond borders.
“The Virgin of Guadalupe, when she expresses herself to Juan Diego, says clearly: ‘I am your mother, the mother of all those who are on this earth in one and the other, the diverse lineages, the nations, that come from me. love those who seek me, and those who trust in me.
The Mexican priest, who recently gave a series of conferences in New York, insisted that love for St. Mary is very strong in the United States, and that he sees in the “big apple” that “all the nations they want from the Virgin.” love” Guadalupe. It’s really going on.”
“To him we are all his children, beyond borders,” he said, because all Catholics “participate in that nationality (which) is part of the heavenly Homeland.”
He said, “May God continue to bless us through his mercy, his love, Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe, Mother of all people.”
