SAN DIEGO — “She is our Mother, and she does not have borders.”
Wendy Baez was reflecting on the experience of being part of a small diocesan delegation that on Sept. 15 escorted an official relic with the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe from Tijuana to her new home in San Diego.
She said that “it was a beautiful experience to pick up our Mother” at that city’s cathedral, which is under construction.
“I thought about how we’re also building the foundation of our faith by receiving Our Lady,” said Baez, the diocese’s new director of the Office for Family Life and Spirituality. Her husband and two children had accompanied her on the trip.
It was an opportunity “to deepen our faith and teach our children a little of the history of how La Virgen arrived in Mexico and why we love her so much.”
The relic is at the heart of the Diocese of San Diego’s five-year initiative to celebrate the 500th anniversary of her apparitions in Mexico in 2031.
The diocese invites the entire community to the first public appearance of the tilma, on Saturday, Oct. 10, at Cathedral Catholic High School, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The Guadalupe 2031 Initiative calls for Our Lady’s image to visit all parishes and Catholic schools in the San Diego-Imperial Valley region, as well as public places, in the next five years.
The tilma, a cloak made out of cactus fibers, is about 5½ feet tall and 3½ feet wide and is housed in an ornate silver and gold frame. It’s considered a third-class relic in the Catholic Church, since it touched the original when it was being prepared.
The original is at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. Bishop Michael Pham led a pilgrimage there in July to receive the relic.
The basilica is located near Tepeyac Hill, where Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to St. Juan Diego five times in December of 1531, igniting the spread of the Christian faith across the native peoples of the Americas and beyond. To those devoted to her, Our Lady represents a protective mother who never abandons her children, especially on their darkest days, and always leads them to her Son, Jesus.
Bishop Pham spoke of how the tilma “is very, very special” in his homily at the basilica, noting how it had survived, virtually undamaged, over the centuries.
Around 1785, a worker cleaning the frame accidentally spilled 50% nitric acid solvent directly onto the fabric. Instead of eating through it, the spill left only a minor stain. In 1921, a bomb hidden in a basket of flowers left under the tilma exploded and damaged the altar of the basilica, but the tilma was unharmed.
“We continue to see it as a living miracle for us in our world today,” Bishop Pham said.
The relic Bishop Pham received was transported from Mexico City to the border, where the Archdiocese of Tijuana safeguarded it. On the morning of Sept. 15, Very Rev. Msgr. Mario Nicolás Villanueva Arellano, the apostolic administrator, welcomed the San Diego delegation and led a prayer beside the framed relic, in an outdoor space of the cathedral.
“We’re sister dioceses, and Our Mother is passing through here,” the apostolic administrator said.
Then, the tilma was loaded into a small van decorated with Our Lady’s image, and the delegation headed to the San Ysidro port of entry. About 3½ hours later, they crossed into the United States.
At the diocesan Pastoral Center, the staff greeted Our Lady with roses and sang the traditional Mexican hymn “La Guadalupana.”
“With hearts full of gratitude, we welcome the pilgrim image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Patroness of the Americas,” said Auxiliary Bishop Felipe Pulido at the Rite of Acceptance in the chapel, where the tilma relic was deposited. “As she once appeared as a loving Mother to St. Juan Diego, may she now draw near to us and lead us ever closer to her Son, Jesus Christ.”
Bishop Pulido headed the 17-member San Diego delegation, which included Fathers Efraín Bautista, of Corpus Christi Parish; Edmundo Zárate, of St. Jude Shrine of the West Parish; and Chris Bongato, the diocese’s vicar for ethnic and intercultural communities.
Six members of the Vietnamese Catholic Community were a part of the delegation, including community and ministry leaders and two religious sisters.
“We had heard about Our Lady of Guadalupe, but, personally, I did not know her history,” said one of them, Kha T. Tran, a vice chair in the community, who said he would continue to learn more about her.
The diocese is hosting a presentation in Vietnamese about Our Lady of Guadalupe at Good Shepherd Parish at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct.30.
Information about the diocese’s initiative can be found at sdcatholic.org/guadalupe2031.
