Long Lines Don’t Deter Crowds From Seeing Relic

By HENRIETTA GOMES, CNS

Published: August 21, 2003

WASHINGTON (CNS) — After passing through eight dioceses, a small fragment of St. Juan Diego’s tilma, or cloak, bearing a portion of the original image of Our Lady of Guadalupe reached Washington Aug. 7.

Nearly 1,500 people flocked to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, where they stood in long lines -- rosaries and holy cards in hand -- waiting to venerate the relic.

At a shrine Mass Aug. 9, Washington Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick told the congregation in Spanish that the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego was a clear sign of God’s deep love for his people.

He said God chose St. Juan Diego, who was poor and had nothing, and showed him a great sign. Through St. Juan Diego, God also has given the faithful a message of love, the tilma, which still remains intact after almost 500 years, he said.

The image of Mary as Our Lady of Guadalupe is believed to have been miraculously imprinted on the tilma after Mary appeared to St. Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill in present-day Mexico City in 1531.

The Tilma of Tepeyac Tour, sponsored by the Apostolate for Holy Relics and the Knights of Columbus, will make stops in 20 U.S. cities.

“It’s been like this everywhere,” said Andrew Walther, tour coordinator and vice president of the Apostolate for Holy Relics, speaking of the crowds of people waiting after the Mass to venerate the relic.

“People are in lines for over an hour and nobody seems to mind,” he added.

The tilma itself is enshrined in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. The tiny piece cut from it was given to the archbishop of Los Angeles from the archbishop of Mexico City more than 60 years ago.

The nationwide tour began in May and ends in December at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York.

“We hope that this pilgrimage will give those people who cannot go on pilgrimage to Mexico City an opportunity to share in the graces and blessings bestowed by Our Lady of Guadalupe,”said Walther.

Ines Moran, a parishioner of St. Mark’s Church in the Maryland suburb of Hyattsville, brought her son, sister, nieces, cousins, aunts and many of her friends to the shrine to venerate the relic and attend the Mass.

Moran, a native of Mexico, said she felt compelled to see the relic.

Kateri Orellano, who learned of Our Lady of Guadalupe from her father, who visited the Mexico City shrine, said veneration of the relic “brings you closer to God.”

“Juan Diego was someone clearly very close to the mother of God ... so this is very special to me,” she said. “We’ve brought our children to pass the tradition, and we wanted the blessing. Who knows when we’ll go to Mexico?”

The relic’s next stop was Baltimore, where some 1,200 people visited the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Aug. 10-11 to see and pray before the fragment of the tilma.

More than 400 people came to the basilica Aug. 10 to attend a Mass, and even more showed up the next day. A line of people the length of the basilica formed as people waited to approach the relic before the 12:10 p.m. Mass.