Archbishop Cordileone wants to encourage a devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe in U.S.

CNA Staff, Dec 13, 2024 / 17:15 pm

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco is launching a project to increase devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe in response to Pope Francis’ call to prepare and pray as the 500th anniversary of the Guadalupe apparition approaches.

Cordileone told EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo on “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo” of his goal of “informing people of this call of Pope Francis,” which he said is “largely unknown” to English-speaking Catholics.

To that end, the archbishop is promoting Project Guadalupe 2031, an initiative to help families enthrone Our Lady of Guadalupe in their homes. Through a new “Mass of the Americas,” which will be celebrated across the country, he also hopes to encourage a devotion to Our Lady.

Cordileone is also drawing attention to a nine-year intercontinental novena, called for by Pope Francis in 2022, that anticipates the fifth centennial of the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 2031.

“We want to promote awareness of this and invite people into this novena to instill greater devotion to Our Lady because she’s the one who always leads us to the encounter with her son,” Cordileone told Arroyo. 

“We’ve planned celebrations of the Mass of the Americas that I commissioned six years ago to bring the popular music Mexican people sing to honor Our Lady of Guadalupe into the sacred music tradition of the Church,” Cordileone said. 

Composed by Frank La Rocca, Mass of the Americas is a liturgy of unity with Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the United States, and Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of Mexico and all the Americas.

Cordileone recalled an archdiocesan celebration as the spark for the idea. 

“This all was born from six years ago: Dec. 8 was on a Saturday, and we had an archdiocesan-wide celebration of Our Lady Guadalupe on the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception,” Cordileone recalled. 

“So I thought, we all love Our Lady no matter which side of the border we live on, what language we speak, what culture we come from,” the archbishop said. “So we need to look to Our Lady as the mother who unites us all into one family of God.” 

“It’s a Mass of unity,” Cordileone explained, noting that celebrations of the special Mass will be celebrated in different venues across the U.S. The culmination of this will be a celebration of the Mass on the memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary on Oct. 7, 2025, at the Basílica de Santa María de Guadalupe (Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe) in Tepeyac outside of Mexico City. 

The shrine was built at the site of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s appearance to St. Juan Diego in 1531, which led to the conversion of several millions of Aztecs. The shrine is home to the famous miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. 

The Mass of the Americas will be sung by a festival choir, featuring hundreds of singers from across the United States and led by Richard Carrillo of the University of Nebraska. Carrillo, 41, first conducted the Mass of the Americas as part of his doctoral dissertation for Miami’s prestigious Frost School of Music.

Carrillo shared about the importance of Our Lady in his life in an interview with the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner. 

Carrillo, who is of mixed Indigenous and Mexican ancestry, recalls his grandmother singing “La Guadalupana” to him when he was a young boy. 

“When I first heard the lullaby my grandmother sang to me raised into sacred music for the Mass of the Americas, I was so moved I wept,” Carrillo said. “I know Mimi continues to pray for me, with the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe, from heaven.”

Carrillo credits Our Lady for his own Catholic faith. 

“It’s hard to not find her responsible for my faith and the strong faith of my family that preceded me for generations,” Carrillo said. “I have deep roots in both Mexican Indigenous and Hispanic backgrounds. It was Our Lady of Guadalupe’s original apparition that first brought my ancient ancestors to their faith — and a faith that has been passed down for nearly 500 years to this present day.” 

The festival choir will be open to people of a variety of skill levels, with the more challenging parts sung by a smaller chamber choir.  

“One of the beauties of the Mass of the Americas is that it is accessible for average singers,” Carrillo said. “If someone just loves to sing, they will be able to sing the majority of the Mass of the Americas in Mexico, and if someone is a more trained singer (has a degree in music or is a professional musician) they may be asked if they would be willing to learn two additional songs.” 

The choir itself will contribute to the ideal of unity, drawing on hundreds of voices from the Americas.

“But my hope is that we can truly put together a true cross-section of musicians from all parts of the country, from the big cathedrals and the small parish choirs to even singular cantors from smaller churches, to represent the United States in this historic celebration of the 500th anniversary of Our Lady of Guadalupe,” Carrillo said.

Anticipating the 500th anniversary of Guadalupe

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In preparation for the anniversary, the Benedict XVI Institute is inviting families to enthrone an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in their homes.

The goal? One hundred thousand “home enthronements” in the next three years.

The Benedict XVI Institute’s Project Guadalupe 2031 will offer free materials for families who wish to have an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in their homes, including instructions for devotion.

The institute has commissioned a new painting by San Francisco artist Bernadette Carstensen as well as a new “Litany for Our Lady of Guadalupe and the American Saints” by the institute’s poet-in-residence James Matthew Wilson. 

“This is another part of our effort to raise awareness of the nine-year novena to enthrone that image of Our Lady of Guadalupe because that is the pivotal moment of introducing Christ into this hemisphere, and we are all a part of it,” Cordileone said.  

Cordileone shared the inspiration for this, noting that Our Lady “brought her son” to the Americas through the apparition. 

“She brought him here to us, so she’s our connection to her son,” the archbishop said. “So we enthrone her in our homes as a reminder of what she has done for us in giving birth to her son, and she continues to give birth to her son for us to lead us into that saving encounter with him.”