When Our Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha Catholic parish honors the Virgin of Guadalupe Monday at a special Mass in Beaumont, Terrence Halloran will be there.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, who, according to church teaching, was a 1531 apparition of the Virgin Mary in what is now Mexico City, is most associated with Mexican Catholicism. But Halloran, 77, of Beaumont, is one of a growing number of non-Latino parishioners in the Inland area who participate in events commemorating her Dec. 12 feast day.
“I’ve always loved the words she spoke to Juan Diego,” Halloran said, referring to the indigenous man to whom Catholics believe the Virgin Mary appeared.
“She spoke to him as a loving mother who cared for him and always would be there to protect him. Those are words that resonate with me very well.”
Catholics of Mexican ancestry have long commemorated the apparition with Masses, early morning songs in honor of the Virgin and processions. Now parishes throughout the Inland area are noticing more white, Asian, African-American and American Indian faces at Our Lady of Guadalupe celebrations.
At Blessed Teresa of Calcutta parish in Winchester, about half of the participants in Virgin of Guadalupe Masses have been non-Latino.
When Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church in San Bernardino inaugurated a special Guadalupe Mass several years ago, the parish deliberately made the service bilingual to attract a diverse group of worshippers.
For centuries, Mexicans have held an intense devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Virgin had brown skin and chose to appear before a poor indigenous man during a time when some Spanish colonizers did not even think the native peoples of Mexico were human. The apparition helped lead to the conversion of millions of indigenous people to Catholicism.
Hipolito Nuñez, 58, of San Bernardino, walked more than 120 miles in the mid-1990s to the church built near the apparition site. Like thousands of other Mexicans do every year, Nuñez wanted to demonstrate his love for and devotion to the Virgin.
“I was so emotional,” Nuñez said in Spanish. “I had such a beautiful feeling in me. We Mexicans carry the Virgin of Guadalupe in our hearts.”
In the past few decades, her status has been elevated through the church as a whole. She was declared Patroness of the Americas, and Pope John Paul II named Juan Diego a saint.
Timothy Matovina, director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame, said that has helped increase attendance of non-Latinos at Guadalupe events across the country.
The dispersion of Latinos in the United States beyond traditional population centers such as California in recent years also has increased knowledge of Our Lady of Guadalupe, he said. In Southern California, parishes are more ethnically mixed than in the past, so Latino and non-Hispanic parishioners interact more, Matovina said.
Jim Evans, 81, a Cherry Valley man who attends Blessed Kateri, said he goes to Our Lady of Guadalupe events in part because he knows how important she is to Latinos.
“Hispanic people are my brothers and sisters in Christ,” he said.
The Rev. Joseph Trong Nguyen, pastor of Blessed Kateri, said parish leaders in 2008 discussed how non-Hispanic parishioners should be encouraged to attend Guadalupe activities. The number of non-Latinos has gradually increased since then, said Nguyen, who has used homilies to tell English-speaking parishioners that the events are not just for Latinos.
The Guadalupe Mass at Blessed Kateri and in some other parishes is in Spanish.
When the Rev. David Fitzgerald established a special bilingual Mass at Our Lady of the Assumption, he wanted to send a message that it was for everyone, said Lucia Godoy, who helps organize Guadalupe events. Fitzgerald left the parish in June.
“That way, other communities can come and enjoy the ceremonies with us,” Godoy said. “Not everyone understands Spanish.”
At Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, tonight’s Mass will be primarily in Spanish and English, with short prayers in Vietnamese and Tagalog, said the Rev. Thomas Burdick, pastor of the church.
The parish, which is about 70 percent non-Latino, has had an emphasis on multiculturalism since it was established in 2006, he said.
Burdick said the intense connection that parishioners of Mexican ancestry feel to the Virgin of Guadalupe may be influencing other congregants.
“Over the years I’ve been moved by the depth of the fervor of the devotion that Mexicans have,” he said. “And I’m sure others have been too.”
