July 20, 2002

The story of Juan Diego, the Mexican peasant who claimed to have been visited by the Virgin Mary as Our Lady of Guadalupe on Tepeyaca hill outside Mexico City in 1531, will soon be validated by Pope John Paul II.
Diego will be canonized a saint of the Roman Catholic Church by the pope in a Mass July 31 at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine in Mexico City.

A group of about 40 people from the Diocese of La Crosse, led by Bishop Raymond L. Burke, will be on hand for the Mass. The devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe is especially meaningful to Burke, who more than two years ago initiated a $25 million fundraising effort to build a shrine honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe as the patron of the Americas.

The first phase of the project, a pilgrim center and votive chapel to Our Lady of Good Counsel, is scheduled for completion this fall. The pilgrim center includes a chapel/meeting room, restaurant and gift shop.

The shrine complex, which will include a blufftop church with seating for 350, a catechism center and stations of the cross, is being built on an 80-acre donated site off Hwy. 14 in Mormon Coulee.

The story of the peasant Juan Diego, although well-known in Mexico and in other parts of Central and South America, until the last decade or so wasn't especially noticed in the United States.

But as our world has become smaller, and more Spanish-speaking people have immigrated to the U.S., the message of love and peace given by the apparition to Juan Diego has been adopted for all the Americas.

Burke said this week that the canonization Mass in Mexico City is expected to draw up to 1 million people, including many Mexicans who are of Native American descent.

"For the Mexican people, this is the first Native American to be canonized," Burke said.

He said Diego was a convert to Christianity and was faithful and devoted to the church. Diego also was a modest man and reported that he told the apparition of the Virgin Mary that she needed to show herself to someone of greater importance than he was if she wanted a basilica built on the site, but she still chose Diego, the bishop said.

"It's a great expression of esteem for the Native American people and their dignity," Burke said.

The devotion and witness of Diego, a poor and humble widower, is a good example of the role of the lay apostle in spreading the Gospel, Burke said. "He's a great patron saint for lay people."

A second Native American, Blessed Kateri Tekakwith, a Mohawk maiden born in 1656 who converted to Christianity and died at age 24, also has been beatified by the church and is a candidate for sainthood because of her sacrifices for her beliefs, Burke said.

The La Crosse diocese also has an organization, based in La Crosse, that supports the cause of sainthood for Kateri Tekakwith. The group holds a special Mass that incorporates Native American elements each year in her memory. This year's Mass was July 13 in Cathedral of St. Joseph the Workman.

Burke said what he had in mind in proposing that a shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe be built in La Crosse was to provide a place of spiritual enrichment that would be easily accessible for people in the diocese.

Our Lady of Guadalupe was chosen as the focal point because of the heightened interest in recent years of her as a symbol for all the Americas, not just Central America or Mexico, he said.

"This is the Blessed Mother's appearance in our continent and for the whole continent, not just Mexico," Burke said. "It's important for people to know it's a message we all share."

Burke said plans call for the first phase of the local shrine to be completed in time for a Mass and blessing ceremony in the Pilgrim's Center on Dec. 12, the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.