In some Catholic parishes it's a bigger day than Christmas or Easter: the
feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Beginning well before dawn, worshipers
today will gather to celebrate the brown-skinned mother of Jesus who, legend
says, appeared before a poor Mexican peasant in 1531.
But the celebration isn't just for Catholics anymore. Increasingly, the
pregnant Virgen de Guadalupe is turning up in other
Latino-dominated churches as a way to make worshipers feel at home while
honoring the mother of Christ and champion of the downtrodden.
Any church wanting to attract Latinos "that doesn't take into account how
deeply that message [of Our Lady of Guadalupe] is rooted in the Latino
identity … is pretty well doomed," said Father Francisco Schulte, a
scholar at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minn.
The trend is particularly noticeable at Episcopal and Lutheran churches, whose
liturgical traditions are closest to Catholicism. Parishioners at St.
Matthew's Episcopal Church in National City, south of San Diego, will gather
this evening to sing and bring roses for Our Lady of Guadalupe. During the
service, eight children will have their first communion. "Mexicans
identify with her because she looks like them," said the Rev. Patricia
Andrews-Callori, rector of the parish. "She's been a consolidating force
for Mexicans."
In Berkeley, theology students and faculty at the Church Divinity School of
the Pacific, a major West Coast seminary for Episcopalians, honored her
Thursday evening with a service that mixed Catholic readings into the standard
liturgy.
"The students have decided to do [a liturgy with] Our Lady of
Guadalupe," said the Rev. Lizette Larson-Miller, dean of the school's
chapel, adding that the class consists mostly of white and Asian American
students. "They jumped wholeheartedly into it. They want to bring this to
their parishes" after they are ordained.
In San Clemente on Sunday, St. Clement's by the Sea Episcopal Church will have
mariachis as part of its morning service devoted to Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Afterward, parishioners will parade through a nearby park for a picnic of
tamales, enchiladas and homemade regional specialties of Mexico.
"Some people don't understand it because these things are Catholic,"
said Margarita Farias, a 33-year-old parishioner and mother of two who lives
in San Clemente. "But I felt that [the Virgin of Guadalupe] is the mother
of us all. I feel we can have her, celebrate her and be a part of this church
too."
Our Lady of Guadalupe's appearance in non-Catholic services has scholars and
others wondering whether the beloved apparition that has united Mexicans for
nearly five centuries can bring together Christian denominations.
"If we can come together through her, then thanks be to God," said
Jaime Soto, auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange. "It
makes a lot of sense that the mother in a dysfunctional family keeps everyone
together."
Many scholars doubt the Virgin Mary's appearance in the hills just outside
present-day Mexico City, or even the existence of Juan Diego, the Aztec whose
rough cloak is said to have miraculously carried the imprinted image of the
Virgin of Guadalupe.
But the hope given to oppressed Mexicans by the cult of Our Lady of Guadalupe
was real. Spanish missionaries spread the story of her apparition — and her
Indian features — to convert Mexico's indigenous tribes from their devotion
to the Aztec mother-goddess, Tonantzin, to the Virgin Mary.
Today, there's a saying that 90% of Mexicans are Catholic but 100% are guadalupano.
So to connect with Latino congregants, especially Mexicans who've strayed from
the Catholic Church, Protestant leaders find themselves grappling with what to
do with her.
Traditionally, Latino Protestants, especially conservative evangelical
pastors, have barred Our Lady of Guadalupe from their churches. Since its
early years, the Catholic Church has had a special devotion to Mary and the
saints, putting up statues of them in churches and praying to them as
intermediaries of God. With the Reformation, Protestants drastically reduced
their status, believing that any prayer to Mary or the saints was a sign of
idolatry.
Arelis Torres recalls celebrating the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe in
her native Dominican Republic. But now, as one among the 700 who attend
services at Iglesia de Dios (Church of God) Pentecostal in Santa Ana, she has
abandoned the tradition.
"You begin to understand the word of God, which is the Bible, and that
does not include this sort of celebration," Torres said. "We
recognize Mary as the mother of Christ, but we do not give any honor. We do
not believe in saints, just God."
Some Protestants are reconsidering whether the banishment of Our Lady of
Guadalupe has been too harsh — if there's a way to celebrate her work
without seeing her as an intermediary to God.
"Even the original reformers of the church still honored Mary as a model
of faith and a unifier," said Jesse Miranda, president of the evangelical
group AMEN, believed to be the nation's largest Protestant Latino
organization. He argues that Protestant churches have gone too far in
downplaying the significance of Mary.
In a book about the spreading influence of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Maxwell E.
Johnson, a Lutheran minister and Notre Dame professor, points to Lutheran
churches in Illinois, Pennsylvania and Texas that honor the Brown Virgin. In
his book, the pastor of a church in Carpentersville, Ill., writes about her
parish's celebration: "The feast of Guadalupe is one of the ways in which
we … express both our 'catholic' heritage and our Hispanic culture."
Since 1997, a Lutheran liturgical planning book has suggested ways to
celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe on Dec. 12.
Bishop Soto said he has some concern that Protestant churches could use the
icon only as a kind of advertising to attract Latino congregants. In past
years, storefront churches have lured Latinos into worship with Our Lady of
Guadalupe, only to denounce the image as idolatrous.
"[They say it] needs to be removed not only from their churches but from
their lives," said Father Schulte, the Minnesota scholar.
Soto said Our Lady of Guadalupe is available to everyone. "It would be
wrong for the institutional church to assume that we control this like a
trademark," he said. "I hope as other Christian churches learn to
understand the evocative power of Our Lady, they too will learn that you do
not use her; she uses you."
