Published February 4, 2007

Uniting Whites, Hispanics
Priest Sees Lady of Guadalupe as ‘Bridge’

By Eileen Dugan
Sooner Catholic

OKLAHOMA CITY — Mary, the Mother of Jesus, back in 1531 gave the world the road map for bringing White and Hispanic communities together, Father Marcus McFadin told his audience at the Southwest Liturgical Conference. This road map is not a path, as might be expected, but an image, her image as Our Lady of Guadalupe.

“The growth of the Hispanic community throughout the United States has presented many challenges to the historically non-Hispanic parish,” Father McFadin said. Mary as Our Lady of Guadalupe is the key to reconciling these two very different groups of worshipers.

Father McFadin said he believes that the message of Guadalupe is one of inclusion, not exclusion. Now, in many parishes, whites and Hispanics worship separately. He thinks Mary can help American Catholics whose roots lie in Europe join forces with those whose relatives hail from below the Rio Grande. He envisions Mary helping the two cultures work together to develop liturgies that will inspire and fulfill both groups’  spiritual aspirations and infuse American Catholic liturgies with a new energy and power.

“After the image of Jesus, the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is the most reproduced icon in the Catholic world,” Father McFadin said. Her popularity “transcends the Mexican world.” She appears on T-shirts, tattoos, murals and other places, bursting forth with a power so great she melts white (Spanish) and Hispanic (Aztec) symbols into one.

In her famous portrait, Mary appears as Jesus’ mother, a powerful white, Christian symbol. But she has the dark skin of an Indian, symbol of the Aztec culture. She is pictured bursting forth from the sun, a powerful Aztec symbol, and overwhelming it by the power of the most potent white, Christian symbol, Jesus, whom she bears in her womb. We know this, Father McFadin said, because the black tassels she wears above her waist form an Aztec maternity band, indicating she is with child.

In this apparition, Mary represents herself as a mother, one who is, at the same time, Spanish and Indian, white and Hispanic. Pope John Paul II referred to her as “the Mother of the Americas.” As such, she is the Mother of all Catholics in the Americas, those from the North and the South.

At Guadalupe, Mary presents herself as a mother about to give birth. Jesus is about to be born. Christmas is almost here. It is Advent, and Father McFadin said he thinks that it is in the Catholic observation of Advent that Mary can reconcile the white and Hispanic cultures within the Church.

There has always been tension in the United States between different cultures. Today, Father McFadin said he sees this tension evident in liturgy battles being fought between whites and Hispanics in the American Catholic Church. Both cultures  struggle in many parishes to observe Advent in their own particular way, not understanding the very different Advent rites of the other culture.

The “stark” simplicity of the white culture’s austere observation of Advent stands in sharp contrast to the “color, flower and song central to Hispanic Advent” festivities, which have grown out of the celebration of the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

When Cortez conquered Mexico City, he brought about the annihilation of the Aztec culture. The religious, political and social systems of Mexico were destroyed. Disease brought from Europe further decimated the Indians. Then, 10 years later, in 1531, into this demoralized world “came the Apparitions” of Guadalupe, bringing with them new hope for Catholic natives of Mexico.

Juan Diego, an Indian, represents this conquered people. His culture at that time was viewed as “bad” by the conquerors. But at dawn on the morning of Dec. 9, 1531, everything for him was about to change.

A half-awake Diego, a recent Catholic convert, was on his way to catechism class. Suddenly, music surrounded him, jolting him awake. Music to the Aztec indicated that something important was about to happen. And it did.

Suddenly, Mary appeared to Diego as a beautiful lady. She called to him, addressing him as “Dignified One.” She spoke Aztec, not Spanish. She told Diego to go to the Spanish bishop and tell him to build a church in  her honor. Dutifully, Diego set off to deliver her message.

 Diego went and was rejected by the pride of the bishop. The bishop refused to see him. Diego returned to the Lady and told her what had happened. She told him he must go back, but this time she would give him a sign. He should pick the roses that had miraculously bloomed out of season on the top of the hill of apparitions. He should fill his cloak with these flowers and take them to the bishop.

Diego does as the Lady tells him, and as he empties the roses onto the floor before the bishop, a miraculous image of Mary is revealed imbedded into his cloak. The bishop is convinced the Lady is from God. He builds the church.

Diego’s story is important to Hispanics because it gives them hope for the future. Father McFadin said he thinks that it has a hope-filled message for other Catholics, as well.

It is a story of resurrection. A conquered people, the Aztecs, are resurrected. By appearing to Diego, Mary gives back to him and Indians in general their self-esteem. She does this by choosing to appear as an Indian to an Indian, by addressing this Indian as “Dignified One” and by using his Aztec language.

It is a story of conversion. A prideful bishop is converted to humility and a new love for the Lord. When Diego first approaches the Spanish bishop with news of the Lady, he must humbly bow and kneel before him. But, when the bishop sees that a miracle has taken place, it is he who bows and kneels to the image of the Lady and the God whose Mother she is.

And it is a story of reconciliation. Those who were conquered, Diego and the other Indians, do not try to destroy the conquerors, the bishop and other Spaniards. “There is a willingness to forgive,” Father McFadin said.

Father McFadin said he views this story of Guadalupe as hope-filled because Mary implies by appearing at Guadalupe as an image blending two cultures, that as “Mother of the Americas,” she can help her white and Hispanic children reconcile and, in the process, renew the Church.