Pilgrim Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe Visits Mindanao

The 3D international pilgrim image of the Our Lady of Guadalupe from Mexico will arrive in Davao City on Sunday, July 25. The image is among its last stops in Mindanao as part of the build-up for its 500th anniversary celebration in 2031. The Archdiocese of Davao will welcome the image at the San Pedro Cathedral. It will stay there until July 29 before being brought to the Christ the King Cathedral in the Diocese of Tagum, then to the San Nicolas de Tolentino Cathedral in the Diocese of Mati. During the Davao peace and security press conference on Thursday, Eduardo Pacana, Archdiocesan Council of the Lay (ACLAIM) president, said, “Rather than us going to Mexico, it’s very expensive, it’s Mama Mary who will visit us through her international pilgrim image so we can venerate her image without having to go all the way to Mexico.” On Friday, the image was at the Mary Mediatrix of All Grace Cathedral in the Diocese of Digos, where it will stay until Sunday morning. A total of 13 churches in Mindanao have been visited by the image, in addition to three others in the Archdiocese of Davao. ACLAIM lay-in-charge Jerick Nacion said the Philippines is “lucky” to be visited by the image as part of its fifth centennial, noting the significance of the Our Lady of Guadalupe to Filipino Catholic believers as the national patron. The Virgin Mary is believed to have appeared before Juan Diego on December 9-13, 1531, and made her presence known through her “miraculous image” imprinted on his “tilma” or cactus-cloak. The tilma is enshrined at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, near the place where the apparition happened. A replica of the tilma will give the chance to devotees to have it laid over them every after Holy Mass schedules. Centuries later, in 1935, Pope Pius XI declared the Our Lady of Guadalupe as the “Celestial Patroness of the Philippines.” According to Catholic news outlet EWTN, in 2021, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) declared December 12 an obligatory memorial. In 2002, the CBCP said that “it recognized her as the “Pro-Life Patroness of the Philippines” in response to the global movement to entrust the plight of unborn children to her intercession. The image is on a 6-month pilgrimage across 54 churches in different archdioceses and dioceses in the Philippines. The image started its visit on June 13 at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Our Lord’s Transfiguration in Palo, Leyte. The last stop is at the Shrine of St. Therese of the Child Jesus in Pasay City by the first week of December. (Razl EJ Teman/MindaNews)