On the day of her feast, December 12, 1999, at the turn of the third millennium, a permanent image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was dedicated at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart during and English-Spanish bilingual Mass concelebrated by Msgr. Charles Kelly, Vicar General and Rector of the Cathedral, Msgr. Thomas Shreve, Vicar General, Msgr. Michael Schmied, Vicar for the Hispanic Apostolate, and other priests of our diocese.

The image is a life size replica of the original on the main altar at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. It was acquired by Msgr. Schmied and Elisa Montalvo, Director for the Hispanic Apostolate, at the Basilica, here it was blessed by its Rector on July 4, 1999.

The Virgin of Guadalupe, Patroness of America, has been declared by Pope John Paul II the Star of the New Evangelization, "new in ardor, methods and expression". The Pope speaks of America in the singular to unite North, Central, South America, and the Caribbean, in one entity: the New World, which was born Catholic more than 500 years ago.

Catholicism came to America in 1492. The encounter between the European conquerors and the indigenous people was extremely painful, marked by war and disease. By 1531 many natives believed their existence had come to an end and only a few had adopted the new foreign religion. It was not until the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe to Juan Diego that a message of a loving God was revealed and around eight million people converted to Christianity.

Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego, a poor Indian, in the middle of the Advent season in 1531, wearing the Aztec sash of a pregnant woman. Her features were those of a mestizo woman, the new race created by the merging of the Old and the New World. She spoke to him in Nahuatl, his native language, and asked him to go to his bishop and request that a temple be built on the hill of Tepeyac, where she appeared.

Juan Diego went to his bishop, Juan de Zumárraga, who did not believe his story. Feeling unworthy and defeated, Juan Diego tried to avoid encountering the Virgin again, but she kept appearing and encouraging him to fulfill his mission, although he begged her to choose somebody more prestigious, more important. Finally, on December 12, she provided him with roses of Castile, that were not in season, as proof of her apparitions. Juan Diego carried the roses in his tilma, a coarse cloak of cactus fiber. When the roses fell at the bishop's feet, imprinted in the tilma appeared the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe that today is enshrined in the Basilica on the hill of Tepeyac in Mexico City, the temple which was finally built as a result of the miracle.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is now enshrined at our own Cathedral of the Sacred Heart. As she restored their human dignity to Juan Diego and his people, and requested for a temple to be built where all would be welcome, we must build in our hearts temples of love for all people, especially the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the oppressed. As Juan Diego, we can listen to her, and carry her message to evangelize the world that surrounds us, to turn a culture of death into a culture of life. She will always accompany us in our journey with the words that she spoke to Juan Diego: "Do not let your countenance and heart be troubled. Am I not here your mother? Are you not under my shadow and my protection?"

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