Supreme
Knight Carl A. Anderson addressed a crowd estimated at 60,000 on
Saturday evening, May 19, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. "We
are all citizens of the Catholic hemisphere," Anderson said. "The rosary
and Our Lady, especially under her title of Our Lady of Guadalupe, must
be seen as the common bond of our Catholic hemisphere."
"Hispanics in
the Church are not an abstraction - they're our fellow parishioners," he
continued. "In the Knights of Columbus, they're our brother Knights, our fellow
Caballeros de Colon, and they have been so since 1905. . . Our Lady of Guadalupe
points us to her son, but she also points us to unity in her son and for
Catholics this unity must transcend borders."
Of Our Lady of
Guadalupe, Pope Benedict XIV wrote: “To no other nation has such a wonder been
done.” At the time he wrote those words, that nation stretched from Seattle to
Central America. And thus Pope Pius XII proclaimed Our Lady of Guadalupe
“Empress of the Americas and the Philippines.”
Therefore, the wonder that had been done was for all the people of our
hemisphere. Para toda la gente de nuestro hemisferio.
We are all
citizens of the Catholic hemisphere. Todos nosotros somos ciudadanos del
hemisferio cristiano.
While many
continents have never been Christian, and while Europe’s churches are nearly
empty, ours are still full. It is here that the Church faces a bright future.
No other place
on earth has as many practicing Catholics as the Americas. It is up to us – in
our lives, in our homes, and in our families – to put our faith into practice.
It is remarkable
that the symbol of unity in the seal of the city of Los Angeles is the rosary.
It commemorates the Spanish missionaries who came here in the 18th century, it
surrounds the seal, and holds it together.
The rosary and
Our Lady, especially under her title of Our Lady of Guadalupe, must be seen as
the common bond of our Catholic hemisphere.
Los Angeles
provides us with a look into the future of our country. Here we have a
cosmopolitan group, from many diverse backgrounds, unified in so many ways by
faith.
In our nation,
one in four Americans is Catholic. Every Sunday, church pews are filled with a
rapidly growing number of Hispanic Catholics. Hispanics in the Church are not an
abstraction – they’re our fellow parishioners. Los hispanos en la Iglesia no son
una abstraccion, son nuestros hermanos (en la fe).
In the Knights
of Columbus, they’re our brother Knights, our fellow Caballeros de Colón, and
they have been so since 1905, when we established our first council in Mexico
City.
Our Lady of
Guadalupe points us to her son, but she also points us to unity in her son and
for Catholics this unity must transcend borders.
Santa Maria de
Guadalupe nos lleva a su Hijo, y también nos lleva a la unidad en su Hijo,
unidad, que para los católicos debe trascender fronteras.
Pope Benedict
XVI said in his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est: “to say that we love God
becomes a lie if we are closed to our neighbor or hate him.”
If this is the
Catholic hemisphere, then it is also Mary’s hemisphere – under the protection of
Our Lady of Guadalupe.
In Spanish, to
give birth is referred to as dar a luz – to bring to the light. Truly this is
the history of our hemisphere. Our Lady of Guadalupe brought to the light
Catholicism in our hemisphere, and brought the people of this land to the Light
of her son.
May she bring to
the light a new unity among all her people.
United by the
Rosary, and under the protection of Our Lady of Guadalupe, let us go forward in
prayer asking the intercession of the patroness of the Americas for this city
that bears her name, for our country, and our hemisphere.
Humildemente
pedimos la intercesión de Santa María de Guadalupe para todos los que vivimos en
este Continente de la Esperanza.
¡Viva Santa
María de Guadalupe!
A
large crowd packs Pasadena's Rose Bowl for the "Rosary Bowl," an event held on
May 19 to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary.
