The feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe was celebrated at the Vatican with cheerful music and vibrant colors.
For liturgical reasons, a Mass was not celebrated in St. Peter's Basilica, as Advent Sunday is celebrated over other feast days. Yet that didn't stop hundreds of Latinos from going to St. Peter's Square to mark the occasion.
They even brought a mariachi band.
Latinos were present from throughout the Americas.
They all came to St. Peter's Square to pray the Rosary and visit the Pope, who leaned out of the window of the papal apartments to speak to the pilgrims in Spanish.
POPE FRANCIS
'I congratulate you! I congratulate you all who with this gesture have joined those who, from Alaska to Patagonia, celebrate St. Mary of Guadalupe.'
Pope Francis said that the story of Guadalupe shows how Our Lady united an entire people, and brought about a new conversion throughout Latin America.
POPE FRANCIS
'God, who is communion, will encourage the conversion and renewal of the Church and society that we so badly need in the Americas—the situation of so many American countries is very sad—and that we also need in the world.'
The Pope also asked Catholics to start preparing for the 500th anniversary of the apparitions of Guadalupe in 2031.
After Pope Francis said goodbye, celebrations continued in St. Peter's Square to the sound of guitars, dances and devotion to the Mother of the Americas.
Javier Romero
TR: JM
VM
