It was a long drive from Chicago to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Des Plaines on Wednesday evening, but Graciela Ortíz and Jacqueline Roman would not have missed the introduction of the sculpture of the Pilgrim Mother, Our Lady of Guadalupe, for the world.
“She’s our mother,” Ortíz said after viewing the statue following the Aug. 27 Mass. “When I feel stressed, I talk to her. When I feel I need guidance, I talk to her.”
Ortíz and Roman were among the thousands of people who crowded into the plaza at the shrine for a special outdoor Mass in front of the replica image of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the cerrito to welcome the Pilgrim Mother and an accompanying exhibit that are starting an international tour in preparation for the 500th anniversary of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s appearances to San Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill in December 1531.
At the Mass, Msgr. Diego Monroy, rector emeritus of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, and Father Esequiel Sanchez, rector of the shrine, emphasized Mary, in her form as Our Lady of Guadalupe, as a symbol of unity for all people in the Americas.
From Patagonia to Alaska, Monroy said in Spanish, we are one people.
“La madre es la madre (the mother is the mother),” he said, adding that she is here to protect and encourage her children when they are tired and frightened and feel persecuted.
Sanchez, who grew up in Chicago, spoke of learning about Our Lady of Guadalupe as a teenager, from the priests in his parishes, including St. Agnes of Bohemia in Little Village, The priests weren’t Mexican, he said, but they ministered to a mostly Mexican community, and “they knew enough to teach me,” he said, at a time when “I couldn’t even speak Spanish very well. I had to learn. I had to learn to love my community.”
The pilgrim Virgen de Guadalupe arrives in Chicago during a time of political conflict, a time when immigrants feel threatened by the government and some non-immigrants feel threatened by the newcomers, Sanchez said at an Aug. 25 press conference about the statue’s visit.
During the Mass, he said, “I am sick and tired of having somebody tell me who is a monster, and really they are just human beings and deserve respect.”
The Mass was concelebrated by Auxiliary Bishop José María Garcia-Maldonado, himself an immigrant from Mexico; Auxiliary Bishop Timothy O’Malley; Monroy; Sanchez; and several other priests.
The congregation included people who jammed area roads trying to make it to the shrine, with many families getting out of the cars and walking. People arrived in wheelchairs and with walkers and canes; they carried babies in their arms and pushed toddlers in strollers and lifted children onto their shoulders. Some brought portable folding chairs, but most stood in the plaza for the two-hour liturgy as evening turned to dusk and then night.
When the Mass ended, the clergy led a procession to the indoor St. Joseph Chapel on the shrine grounds, where people could line up to see the Pilgrim Mother, Our Lady of Guadalupe statue created by artist by Jorge Ismael Rodríguez, a recognized Mexican artist, which faithfully represents the sacred image.
It is part of an experience that also offers additional images, original music and narrated reflections recounting the history of the Tepeyac apparitions, and it will remain at the shrine until Sept. 30 before moving to St. Gall Parish, 5511 S. Sawyer Ave., Oct. 3-19, and Mother of the Americas Parish, 2226 S. Whipple St., Oct. 22 to Nov. 5.
Msgr. Efraín Hernández Díaz, rector of the basilica in Mexico City, blessed the components of the exhibit before they began their journey.
“This veneration experience will awaken a renewed sense of devotion and will build the ties between our nations,” Hernández Díaz said. “We hope it may inspire new generations to discover the profound significance of being Guadalupan. From Tepeyac to Chicago, we hope to see you very soon.”
Organizers also thanked the support of its main benefactor, Víctor González Dr. Simi, founding president of Farmacias Similares de México, and to the vision of Martín Achirica Ramos, the creator of the experience, who said he hopes to bring peace, love and unity wherever it travels.
After being held by U.S. Customs at O’Hare International Airport for days, the statue and other components of the exhibit barely made it to the shrine in time. The crates were delivered just hours before the Mass, leaving workers to hurry to assemble it.
Following the Mass, Sanchez, still in his vestments, greeted parishioners, spoke with media and directed pilgrims through the chapel.
“So many people and so much faith,” he said. “It’s almost like Dec. 12.”
Dec. 12, the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, is the focal point of days of celebrations that draw hundreds of thousands of people to the shrine each year. They come to pay their respects to Our Lady of Guadalupe and fulfill “mandas,” or promises made to her. The Des Plaines shrine is recognized by the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico as a place that pilgrims can fulfill such promises if they cannot travel to Mexico.
The longstanding relationship between the shrine and the basilica, and the archdioceses of Chicago and Mexico City, was boosted in January when Cardinal Cupich traveled with a group of pilgrims from the Archdiocese of Chicago and Sanchez to Mexico City and visited the basilica.
Javier Vargas of River Grove, a longtime parishioner at the shrine, said he was blessed to be among the pilgrims to Mexico earlier this year, and was even more blessed to see the pilgrim statue travel to the shrine.
“This place is home,” Vargas said. “This is where we come to humbly implore Our Lady for wisdom and for help. And with the statue here … it’s really beautiful.”
Ana Martinez of Melrose Park made it to the Mass, she said, but could not wait in the line to visit the statue the evening of Aug. 27.
She will return, she said, when the shrine is less crowded and she can have more time for prayer with Our Lady of Guadalupe.
“Since I was born, she was always there,” Martinez said.
The exhibit is free and open to the public.
For more information, visit solg.org.