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December 21, 2008

‘We are a people of hope’

By Michelle Martin

ASSISTANT EDITOR

On a frosty Friday afternoon, more than 400 Catholics gathered on Federal Plaza at Adams and Dearborn streets in downtown Chicago to publicly celebrate the Eucharist in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Auxiliary Bishop Gustavo Garcia- Siller, who was the main celebrant of the outdoor Mass, called it a “historic moment” and said the people who gathered there did so because they were concerned about the state of society.

But they did not come with despair, Bishop Garcia-Siller said, because the Virgin of Guadalupe is a sign of hope.

“We are a people of hope,” he said, an anthem that would be repeated several times during the Mass by the people. “Our Americas are a place of hope.”

The Mass was celebrated in the shadow of the Kluczynski and Dirksen federal office buildings, with the American flag flying above the congregation. The event was the brainchild of Thomas Brjecha of the Thomas More Law Society. The society sponsored the Mass along with the archdiocesan Respect Life Office, Office for Peace and Justice and Office of Hispanic Ministry and the Pro-Life Action League.

Sponsors provided coffee and hot chocolate after Mass, as well as handwarmers for people suffering from the cold, with temperatures in the low teens and the wind chill near zero. They also offered roses to offer to the virgin for those who did not bring their own.

The celebrants of the Mass occasionally pulled on hats and gloves, and those worshipping were bundled in layers of coats and blankets, but most dropped to their knees on the cold pavement for the Eucharistic Prayer.

Mary, who appeared to St. Juan Diego at dawn on Dec. 9, 1531, is the greatest beacon of hope, Garcia- Siller said, because Mary delivered God to humanity. She appeared to Diego again twice more, and the last time, on Dec. 12, filled his tilma, or cloak, with roses. When he emptied them from the cloak, he found her image, which is still on display at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

“Since then, the Blessed Virgin Mary has been a beacon of hope to all peoples and has been present to all cultures,” the bishop said.

Garcia-Siller, who was born in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, spoke of his own connection with the Virgin of Guadalupe, saying that before his parents were married, they were told they would be unable to have children. They made a pilgrimage to the Basilica of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Tepeyac Hill before they were married.

Later, when his mother was pregnant with him, they made another pilgrimage in thanksgiving, and they returned to present him to the Virgin when he was born, said Garcia-Siller, who ended up the oldest of 15 children in his family.

“Since then, it has become the road of faith I have most traveled,” he said.

Pilgrimages to Our Lady of Guadalupe continue, even in the Chicago area, the bishop said. The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe at Maryville in Des Plaines expected 100,000 pilgrims in the 24 hours starting with the 8 p.m. Mass he celebrated at the shrine Dec. 11.

“I saw thousands of people walking miles in the dark and the cold,” he said. “With children and babies in the midst of the cold, to be near Our Lady of Guadalupe. The story of Our Lady of Guadalupe and her beautiful presence in the tilma reminds us that babies in the womb, street children, the young, the indigenous peoples, the immigrants, the refugees, the old, the marginalized and all sinners can live in hope.”

The Foreman family of St. Alexander Parish in Palos Heights made the trip downtown for the Mass and were uplifted by the joy they felt from the worshippers, despite the cold.

“Did you see the smiles on people’s faces?” said Christina Foreman. “We needed to do this. It was a very public demonstration and it showed a united Catholic Church.”

Others came because they work in the area. Daniel Gomez, who works for the Department of Labor in the Kluczinski Building, came out on his lunch hour.

“I was planning to go to Mass today anyway,” he said. “I looked outside and saw the Mass.”

Brjecha said he came up with the idea for public Mass after seeing the massive immigration rights marches downtown. The Thomas More Law Society had been involved in earlier legal challenges to allow a crèche in nearby Daley Plaza, and to allow clips from the movie “The Nativity” to be shown. It also sponsors an Easter sunrise service at Daley Plaza.

But Daley Plaza is occupied by the Christkindle Market in December, so he approached federal authorities about using the plaza at Dearborn and Adams. They agreed with no difficulty, he said. Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patroness not only of Mexico but of all the Americas, Garcia-Siller noted in his homily.

“She is the hope of our Americas because she found favor with God, because she conceived in her womb a son and his name is Jesus, because her son is the Son of God and his kingdom has no end.”