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When First Lady Jill Biden was in Mexico City on Sunday, she went with Mexican First Lady Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller to pay homage at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Protectress of the Unborn. “Began my trip to Mexico City with a visit to the beautiful Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe,” Jill Biden said in a tweet, which featured a photograph of her standing in front of the framed image of the Virgin Mary as she had appeared to the Mexican peasant, Juan Diego, in 1531. […] St. Pope John Paul II named Our Lady of Guadalupe...

[Catholic Caucus] Protector of the IndiansAbove: the old and new basilicas of Our Lady of Guadalupe.In the year 1527 King Charles V of Spain spent Holy Week at the Franciscan Monastery of Barajo near the city of Burgo in northern Spain. Friar Juan de Zumarraga was the prior of the monastery at this time. So impressed was the King by Friar Zumarraga’s holiness and capabilities that a year later, in 1528, he recommended that he become the first bishop of Mexico. His official title would be “Protector of the Indians.”Advertisement - Continue Reading BelowOne might wonder why a Franciscan would...

A 51-year-old Dos Palos man accused of shooting a Merced County sheriff’s deputy was captured Thursday following a nearly hour-long high-speed chase. According to Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke, the suspect Guadalupe Lopez-Herrera fired one shot at California Highway Patrol officers before he was apprehended after the chase ended in Kettleman City on Thursday afternoon. During a news conference Thursday, Warnke also revealed Lopez-Herrera was in the country illegally and had threatened the lives of his wife’s family. The detective, whose name has not been released, was shot just before 3:30 p.m. Wednesday near the intersection of Eucalyptus Road and...

On The Hidden Mercy of the Tilma of Guadalupe Msgr. Charles Pope • December 11, 2017 • On the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, it is a chance for us to rejoice in the great mercy of our divine Lord and our blessed Lady. I am drawn to mediate on the miraculous quality of our Lady’s eyes on the tilma.As many of you know, recent discoveries using modern magnification and ophthalmological equipment have shown the seemingly miraculous reflection of as many as a dozen persons in her eyes. How such tiny and accurate reflections could occur in both...

Archaeologists working in sand dunes on the central California coast have dug up an intact plaster sphinx that was part of an Egyptian movie set built more than 90 years ago for Cecil B. DeMille's epic "The Ten Commandments." The 300-pound sphinx is the second recovered from the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes.

Although it is only August, my choir is planning our music for the Mass for Our Lady of Guadalupe (December 12). It is a bilingual Spanish/English service. We have an abundance of songs available in Spanish, of course. However, we need two or three songs in English. For the past two years, we have used "Hail Mary, Gentle Woman" and "Holy is His Name," but we're tired of those! Does anyone know of any songs in English about Our Lady of Guadalupe, or even fairly close thematically? I looked last year, but all I found was something for children using...

In the Midst of Much Blood, God Extended a Rose – A Meditation on Guadalupe and Mother Mary Msgr. Charles Pope • December 12, 2016 • I’d like to reflect this evening on the first reading from today’s Mass for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth. Then another sign appeared in the sky; it was a...

December 9, 2016 Friday of the Second Week in Advent Reading 1 Is 48:17-19 Thus says the LORD, your redeemer,the Holy One of Israel:I, the LORD, your God,teach you what is for your good,and lead you on the way you should go.If you would hearken to my commandments,your prosperity would be like a river,and your vindication like the waves of the sea;Your descendants would be like the sand,and those born of your stock like its grains,Their name never cut offor blotted out from my presence. Responsorial Psalm Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6 R. (see John 8:12) Those who...

A day of prayer with a focus on the plight of refugees and migrants will take place across the United States Dec. 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, said the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington. "As Christmas approaches and especially on this feast of Our Lady, we are reminded of how our savior Jesus Christ was not born in the comfort of his own home, but rather in an unfamiliar manger," said Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston. "To all those families separated and far from home in uncertain times, we join with...

Question: "Who is the Lady of Guadalupe? Were the apparitions of Mary at Guadalupe real?" Answer: Answer: In Catholicism, Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patron saint of Mexico, pictured as a woman in a blue mantle. Her hands are folded, her eyes are cast downward, and she is surrounded by a radiant glow. She is standing on a crescent moon supported by an angel underneath. This image is based on a series of five supposed appearances of the Virgin Mary in Mexico in the sixteenth century.

But this article isn’t about the whole apparition story so much as it is about the tilma, Juan Diego’s cloak, on which the image of the Blessed Mother was imprinted. In the centuries following the event, some amazing and unexplainable qualities have been discovered about it. Here’s four (literally) awesome facts about the tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe:

St. Juan Diego: Ordinary Son of Mary Daniel StewartJuan Diego was born in 1474 in a place called Cuautitlán. Once a part of the Aztec Empire, Cuautitlán was conquered by the Spanish and is now in present day Mexico City. Born before the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, Juan Diego was an indigenous Mexican who was given the name Cuauhtlatoatzin at birth. When Franciscan missionaries arrived, Cuauhtlatoatzin and his wife were some of the first indigenous people to convert. At baptism, they were given the names Juan Diego and Maria Lucia. Juan Diego was not a slave but...

Hidden for more than 90 years beneath the rolling sand dunes of Guadalupe, California, an enormous, plaster sphinx from the 1923 blockbuster movie "The Ten Commandments" has been rediscovered and is now above ground. The public will be able to see the sphinx on display as early as next year, once it has been reconstructed a necessity since it became weather-beaten during its stint beneath the sand, said Doug Jenzen, the executive director of the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Center, who oversaw the recent excavation.

This past week we celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Fatima. (And, given my mention of Fatima, you may wonder why I have Our Lady of Guadalupe pictured here, but more on that in a moment). But as for Fatima, with all the emphasis on the magnificent teaching and prophetic fulfillment of that apparition, something that has always intrigued me is that she would appear of all places in a town called Fatima. Why Fatima, a town that recalls the daughter of Mohammed?Indeed, I have often heard that Muslims hold our Blessed Mother Mary in high regard. This reverence...

The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe has been the subject of numerous technical studies since 1751 and extensive scientific investigations in recent years, and none of the result offered any sound scientific explanation which, up to this very day, defies science and all human reasoning as it continuous to baffle scientists and even skeptics. Below are only some of the findings that were drawn from the scientific investigations conducted on the image and the fabric itself which were commissioned by the authorized custodians of the Tilma in the Basilica, and in every case the investigators had direct and...

FULL TITLE: Stepmother of Florida 14-year-old 'who cyber-bullied girl to suicide' is arrested for Facebook video 'which shows her joining in childrens' fight' The stepmother of one of the two girls accused of cyber-bullying a 12-year-old teen to suicide has been arrested for child abuse after a video emerged of her joining in on a two young boys fighting. Vivian Vosburg, 30, of Lakeland, FL., was arrested after a video of her punching two fighting children and screaming profanities allegedly emerged on Facebook. Ms Vosburg is the stepmother of 14-year-old cyber-bullying suspect Guadalupe Shaw. Shaw and Katelyn Roman, 12, have...

Science & the Virgin of Guadalupe Read what science has discovered about the tilma of the Virgin of Guadalupe Download a high-resolution image of the Our Lady of Guadalupe here 1. Ophthalmic studies made on the eyes of Mary detected that when the eye is exposed to light, the retina contracts, and when the light is withdrawn, it returns to a dilated state, just as happens with a living eye. 2. The temperature of Juan Diego’s tilma, made of a material that comes from fibers of the maguey cactus, maintains a constant temperature of 98.6 degrees, the same as that...

When I first heard "For Greater Glory" (originally titled "Cristiada," which I prefer) was being shot, I was stunned -- and skeptical. It never could be produced by Hollywood. In fact, it wouldn't be a theatrical release, maybe a short documentary, certainly with a small budget. On the former, I was correct; it was made in Mexico. On the latter, I was wrong; it's a full-fledged major motion picture with grade-A talent. And it's wonderful. The cast includes Andy Garcia, Eva Longoria, Peter O'Toole (in a cameo role as a murdered priest, the octogenarian is splendid), Ruben Blades and...

Today is the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas--North, Central and South. The feast commemorates the day on which she imprinted her image on the tilma, or cloak, of St. Juan Diego, whose feast Catholics celebrated on December 9th. It is a beautiful story that took place in 1531, a decade after Cortez's conquest of Aztec Mexico, and just 14 years after Martin Luther's publication of his Ninety-Five Theses, the event which precipitated the Protestant Reformation in Europe. December 9, 1531 is the day on which she first appeared to Juan Diego, an Indian convert...

Mary, Mother of Life Our Lady of Guadalupe By: Fr. Andrew Apostoli, CFR The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, miraculously imprinted on St. Juan Diego’s cloak, speaks a message about life. First, it shows that Mary is carrying Christ within her. She is wearing a dark cord with two tassels hanging down from her waist, called a cinta, which was worn only by pregnant women. And photographs of the image, studied by scientists, reveal a slight protrusion of the abdomen, indicating Our Lady is carrying the Christ Child in her womb. An interesting symbol of life on the...