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March 24, 2021By MICHAEL O’CONNELL
CFP Correspondent
Mexican-born Luis Soto has always had a special place in his heart for Our Lady of Guadalupe. He’s not alone.
“In Mexico we say we are 85% Catholic but 100% Guadalupe,” the career theologian and business development leader told a virtual audience at the 20th annual Worcester Diocesan Men’s Conference on March 20. “Every single Mexican will recognize in Our Lady of Guadalupe the symbol that unites us all.”
Mr. Soto, assistant executive director of evangelization and catechesis with the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, closed out this year’s men’s conference speaking program with a talk called “Our Lady of Guadalupe, Queen of the Americas.” In English – and in a separate presentation in Spanish – he chronicled the well-known story of 16th century Mexico City apparitions and urged 21st century New England Catholics to draw upon the Virgin Mary for inspiration.
The apparitions have inspired Catholics for centuries. Mr. Soto said drawings of the visitations are posted virtually everywhere in his native Mexico – in every public building, in every restaurant, on every bus. Dozens of books, movies and documentaries have been produced. The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe – built on the site where the images appeared – draws 20 million tourists a year, more than any other Catholic shrine in the world.
Most Catholics are pretty familiar with the overall story of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Accounts relate how the Virgin Mary appeared four times to 57-year-old common man Juan Diego and once to his sick uncle. The Blessed Mother asked Juan Diego to go to the local archbishop to request that a shrine be built on Tepeyac Hill to serve as the precursor for a new land. When the archbishop resisted, the Blessed Mother facilitated a series of spectacular events. The sick uncle revived and, at her urging, Juan Diego gathered up flowers that had bloomed unexpectedly in the dead of winter. When Juan Diego opened up a cloak that had been carrying these flowers, a stunning image of the Virgin Mary appeared.
Today, Mexico stands tall, inspired by the events in 1531, and Juan Diego’s cloak, otherwise known as a tilma, sits adored in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Mr. Soto went through the details of the story, one by one, pausing to interpret why they continue to hold importance for a modern-day audience of Catholic men.
When the Blessed Mother pushed Juan Diego to set the wheels in motion to build a church, Mr. Soto said, she envisioned a Mexico devoted to Jesus Christ.
“She wants the temple because something new is about to start,” he said. “The Aztecs understood that. We have to tear down this city and build a new one. We will start with a temple where He will be manifest.”
The Blessed Mother could have pressed the issue with the archbishop himself, Mr. Soto explained. But she chose a common man – a “poor layman like you and me” – because, Mr. Soto said, she wanted to empower the people to “be workers, to be helpers in the vineyard with the bishops, with our churches, with our fists, to build this new civilization she’s talking about.”
In 1921, during conflicts in Mexico between the Church and the government, an oppositionist bombed the basilica in an attempt to destroy Juan Diego’s tilma.
“The explosion was heard a mile away – and nothing happened to the tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe!”
Today, Mr. Soto said, the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe is more relevant than ever.
“She comes in a time of crisis and difficulty to give us Him,” he said. “She confides in us to trust in Him. That is the hope we have today, my brothers and sisters. I hope and I pray that the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe will be for you – for all of us – a new inspiration to continue our work of evangelization.”
