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.
Our Lady: Not Just for Catholics
Latinos’ long-revered Virgen de Guadalupe, whose feast day is today, now occupies a place in other denominations.
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.
Our Lady: Not Just for Catholics
December 12, 2003
LA Times
William Lobdell and Jennifer Mena, Times Staff Writers
More at http://articles.latimes.com/2003/dec/12/local/me-guadalupe12
