From The Texas Catholic 

On Nov. 30, priests from throughout the Diocese of Dallas gathered with Bishop Edward J. Burns and Auxiliary Bishop Greg Kelly at the National Shrine Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe to celebrate its recent elevation by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to national shrine status. During that prayerful celebration, Carl A. Anderson, New York Times bestselling author and former Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, gave a keynote speech to those gathered, about the special honor and responsibility the Diocese of Dallas has received. 

Below is transcript of Anderson’s speech: 

 

To Make America Tepeyac by Carl A. Anderson on Nov. 30, 2023, at the National Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Dallas

May it please Your Excellencies, Bishop Burns and Bishop Kelly and Reverend Fathers, thank you for the privilege of being with you today and offering some reflections on Our Lady of Guadalupe. This is a great day for the Diocese of Dallas. But it is even a greater day for the Catholic people of the United States—and beyond.   

In February 2001, I brought the officers and the board of directors of the Knights of Columbus to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. At that time, we consecrated the Knights of Columbus to Our Lady of Guadalupe—not just in Mexico or the United States or even in North America, but throughout the world. I consider that to be one of the most important decisions I made during my more than 20-year service as Supreme Knight.  

That act of consecration was important for several reasons. It was a way to keep faith with our brother knights who in 1905 established the first Knights of Columbus Council in Mexico—itself dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe, and who have for more than a century sacrificed for their faith and for the good of our Church especially when Catholics suffered persecution.[1] But the significance of our act of consecration was more than that. It was a recognition that when Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to St. Juan Diego, New Spain consisted not only of Mexico, but also of a large portion of what would eventually become the United States.  

Many wonder why there has not been an apparition of Our Lady in the United States. I do not. I am convinced that the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe was not only for Mexico. It was also for all of us in the United States. 

As Supreme Knight, John Paul II’s document, Ecclesia in America was my sure guide. One of its most important themes, was building greater communion and solidarity among all Catholics in our hemisphere. But for the United States, I think it is even more important. America is the place where people from all countries in our hemisphere meet. The Catholic Church in our country is truly a microcosm of the Catholic Church in our hemisphere. In fact, we may go further—there is no other country in the world that represents the diversity of the world’s Catholics as does the Catholic community in the United States. That gives us all a special responsibility. 

But I think it gives you: the priests of the Diocese of Dallas—a diocese that is so key to the pastoral ministry of this diverse community—a special responsibility. And I think Our Lady of Guadalupe is key to our understanding of that responsibility and to carrying it out. 

What Ecclesia in America says about Our Lady of Guadalupe—although brief—speaks volumes about our mission to evangelize America, to promote better ties between Catholics in the U. S. and Mexico, and about our own role in bringing reconciliation, healing and hope to our own nation. We are familiar with John Paul II’s observation that Our Lady of Guadalupe is “an impressive example of a perfectly enculturated evangelization,” and that she is the “Star of the first and new evangelization.”[2]    

Star of the first evangelization highlights her unique role in our history. We are a hemisphere introduced to Jesus through Mary. No other Catholic community has had such a beginning—unless we go back to the very beginning of the Church. When from the cross, Jesus places Mary into the care of the apostles, he places Mary into the apostolic church, and in doing this he gives the Church its center and its archetype.[3] 

Now the Lord has done something similar for the Church in our hemisphere—placing Mary at the beginning and at the center.  And as archetype. She is star of the first evangelization. But why is she star of the new evangelization? Why does John Paul II tell us, Our Lady of Guadalupe is today, “the sure path to our meeting with Christ.”[4] 

Several years ago, Pope Francis observed, “that the times we live in are Mary’s times.”  This is also the theme of the book I co-authored with Msgr. Eduardo Chavez entitled, “Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of the Civilization of Love.” We hoped that our book would encourage greater devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. But we also had a broader message—one consistent with what Pope Francis said about “our times.”  

Today, as on the day of her first apparition at Tepeyac, Mary has an important role in the history of nations. Pope Francis consecrated Russia, Ukraine and the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for this reason. It was also the reason why in 1792, Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore consecrated the United States to Mary, and why more recently Archbishop Jose Gomez consecrated the United States to Mary, Mother of the Church. 

Today, we should ask, in what way is Our Lady of Guadalupe relevant to our moment of history? In what way are the times we live in Guadalupe times? First, recall that Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to an indigenous Christian. His Christian name, Juan Diego, now overshadows his indigenous name, Cuauhtlatoatzin. Our Lady spoke to him in his native language—Nathuatl. She appeared to him adorned with the symbols of his native culture. Our Lady of Guadalupe presents herself in this way in order to achieve “a perfectly enculturated evangelization.” 

Recall that in addition to her mestiza face, she wears her hair in the fashion of an unmarried woman, she wears a black ribbon symbolic of her being with child. She appears with a symbol of the only living true god—the four-petal flower—over her womb. Her mantle is a rich blue-green—a color which for Aztecs could only be worn by the emperor. The mantle of Our Lady of Guadalupe—the color of heaven is decorated with gold stars. Her mantle covers a brownish colored tunic, symbolizing the earth and decorated with gold flowers—themselves symbols of divine presence. At her feet, her tunic and her mantle, are held together by an angel.  

Centuries later, Pope Benedict XIV proclaimed Our Lady of Guadalupe Empress of the Americas. But this is not what the indigenous people saw when they looked at her. By holding together her mantle and tunic, and placing them at the feet of this lady, the heavenly messenger has symbolically placed heaven and earth under the authority of a women who wears the imperial color. Stars adorn her robe. She is illuminated by the sun. A sunburst surrounds her with heavenly light. Indigenous Mexicans did not see the Empress of the Americas. Instead, they saw someone who reigned over the entire cosmos. 

But her authority was not only expressed by religious symbolism. According to the Nican Mopohua—the earliest account of Our Lady of Guadalupe, written in the indigenous language, she spoke with a heavenly authority, using indigenous images She said to Juan Diego:  

“I am the ever-perfect holy Mary,
who has the honor to be the mother
of the true God by whom we all live,
the Creator of people,
the Lord of the near and far,
the Lord of heaven and earth.” 

What did the indigenous peoples understand by all of this? Here is what the indigenous of Veracruz still say today: “With the harmony of the angel, who holds up the Heavens and the Earth, a new life will come forth. This is what we received from our elders, our grandparents, that our lives do not end, but rather that they have a new beginning….  

This is what we celebrate (on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe) the arrival of this sign of unity, of harmony, of new life.”[5] This is what Msgr. Chavez and I meant when we described Our Lady of Guadalupe as “Mother of the Civilization of Love.” 

John Paul II called Our Lady of Guadalupe star of the new evangelization for the same reasons he called her star of the first evangelization. In 2001, John Paul II recognized Our Lady of Guadalupe as a source of unity, hope and solidarity among Catholics throughout our hemisphere. She is also our guide to solidarity among Spanish and English-speaking people within the United States. Today is also Our Lady of Guadalupe’s time—as we prepare for the future. First, our country is rapidly becoming multi-cultural in ways that only a few decades ago was unthinkable. 

Second, our Church is rapidly becoming a more global Church. Christians will increasingly be challenged by this question: Can Christianity truly be enculturated within the diverse cultures that exist throughout our world? This challenge is especially strong in countries that are seeking their own identity after emerging from the burdens of colonialism. 

But we also face this challenge here in the United States. One place we can start is with a better appreciation of the traditions of Catholic Native Americans—some of whom trace their origins to the early 17th century—that is, to a time before the establishment of the United States. Their history is an important part of the fabric of Catholicism in our country. Our Lady of Guadalupe helps us understand that. We also face the criticism that Christianity is nothing more than a tool of cultural imperialism used by Europeans to exploit indigenous peoples around the world. Of course, Catholic scholars can respond to these concerns. But Our Lady of Guadalupe herself provides the definitive answer. And her answer must become more present if we are to evangelize an increasingly more diverse world. 

We can also think about Our Lady of Guadalupe in terms of what John Paul II wrote about beauty in his Letter to Artists. The pope writes, “Faced with the sacredness of life…and before the marvels of the universe, wonder is the only appropriate attitude.” Then John Paul explains, “In this sense it has been said…that ‘beauty will save the world.’ Beauty is a key to the mystery and a call to transcendence.” The exploration of this beauty is the vocation he asked artists to take up. He writes, “may your many different paths all lead to that infinite Ocean of beauty where wonder becomes awe, exhilaration, unspeakable joy.”  

But what of the Divine artist himself? Has he not expressed this mystery, this call to transcendence in the way He presented Mary as Our Lady of Guadalupe?  

How many times have visitors innocently asked, “Who painted this image of Mary on the tilma?” When we learn the answer—that it is this infinite Ocean of beauty Himself who created this image in order to draw the world to Himself, we better understand the beauty that saves the world. As Saint Augustine observed, “everything beautiful comes from the highest beauty, which is God.”[6] Our Lady of Guadalupe is a transcendent beauty, a spiritual beauty that draws us to the highest beauty. 

Now a comment about “painting” the tilma. Juan Diego’s tilma is made from the coarse threads of the maguey cactus. Over time some small areas of the tilma became damaged, and so, someone decided to “repair” the image by painting over these damaged parts. When we look at these small repairs under magnification, we can see the layer of paint that was applied, and that in some places is now beginning to peel away. But we can also see the unpainted tilma. There is a tremendous difference between the painted and unpainted surface. The small painted surfaces of the tilma are flat where the paint has covered over and filled in the spaces between the woven threads that make up the tilma. But on the unpainted areas of the tilma—the tiny hills and valleys, the spaces between the threads of the woven material—those areas have not been filled in and covered over by paint. Instead, we see what looks like a fine tapestry created out of different threads of the most subtle colors. In this close-up, magnified world of the tilma, we see something resembling a tapestry—but with a subtilty, precision and sophistication surpassing the artistry of the finest European and Chinese tapestries. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines a miracle as “a sign of wonder beyond nature’s control that can only be attributed to God or divine intercession.” Such is the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on St. Juan Diego’s tilma. A painting of such subtlety could not have been composed in early 16th century New Spain and the Spaniards had little knowledge of the indigenous religious imagery that adorns the tilma. Nor is it believable that a tapestry of such complexity, and threads of such refined color could have been produced under the rustic conditions of New Spain—or, for that matter, in any other place in the world. 

Henri de Lubac concluded his magnificent work, The Splendor of the Church with a chapter entitled, “The Church and Our Lady.” In it, De Lubac sought to defend the Church from the Protestant contention, that I am sure you have heard often enough in Texas, that the problem with the Catholic Church is that it is too Marian. De Lubac responded to this charge not by denying it, but by embracing it.  

 Mary is the great strength of our Church and Our Lady of Guadalupe in the great strength of our Church in America. De Lubac wrote, “Mary is the ‘ideal figure of the Church’…and ‘the mirror in which the whole Church is reflected’.” Everywhere the Church finds in her her type and model, her point of origin and perfection.”[7] This is not only true of the Church as an institution, but of the Church made up of her individual members. In Mary we find the point of origin and perfection of the followers of Christ.  

What changes for the Church in America when we say that Our Lady of Guadalupe is the point of origin and perfection of the followers of Christ? The great question confronting Catholics in America is the question of identity—what does it mean to be a Catholic in America today? Sociologists tell us that every community, every institution has its own culture—distinct yet dependent upon the communities and institutions with which it interacts. In seeking to answer what it means to be a Catholic in America we should ask what is the Catholic culture of my family? The culture of my parish? And the culture of my diocese? How do our answers change if we say that Our Lady of Guadalupe is the mirror in which the whole Church is reflected? In which my parish is reflected? In which my family is reflected? 

In 1964, Pope Paul VI proclaimed Mary Mother of the Church saying, “the whole Christian people should give even greater honor to the Mother of God under this most loving title.” What changes when we see Our Lady of Guadalupe as Mother of the Church? Of my parish? Of my family? In her words to Juan Diego, we see her great motherly care of the Church:  

“Listen and understand, my littlest son,
let nothing frighten and afflict you or trouble your heart…
Am I not here, I who have the honor to be your mother?
Are you not in my shadow and under my protection?
Am I not the source of your joy?
Are you not in the hollow of my mantle,
in the crossing of my arms?”
Is not this the Church that we are called to build up?
Especially in renewing parish life? 

Pope Francis encourages us “to look at Mary as the image and model of the Church.”  

The pope recalled St. Ambrose who told us that Mary “is a type of the Church in the order of faith, charity, and the perfect union with Christ.”[8] In her words to Juan Diego, we see the charity of a loving mother who is the model of Christian charity for every follower of Christ. 

Here Dostoevsky’s insight that “beauty will save the world” can help us better understand Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Russian philosopher, Vladimir Soloviev, who was a close friend of Dostoevsky, once wrote that Dostoevsky “never separated truth from good and beauty; in his artistic creativity he never placed beauty apart from the good and the true. And he was right,” Soloviev concludes, “because these three live only in their unity.”[9]  

Our Lady of Guadalupe helps us understand how beauty, truth and the good can be lived today in the life of the individual Christian. Our Lady of Guadalupe as Mater Ecclesia leads us not only to a more profound understanding of her son, but also to a more profound understanding of his Church. She is our sure defense against all those threats to our Catholic life. This is especially true of those recent immigrants who are especially vulnerable for not being well catechized. But here is precisely the strengthen of Our Lady of Guadalupe and popular devotion to her. As Hans Urs von Balthasar has observed, “The veneration of Mary is the surest and shortest way to get close to Christ in a concrete way. In meditating on her life in all its phases we learn what it means to live for and with Christ.”[10] Our Lady of Guadalupe is a providential catechetical way, to Jesus through Mary for thousands of our fellow Catholics. 

Early Christians considered Mary to be the image of the maternity of the Church—a church who daily brings forth the Lord to his people, and who daily brings forth new children to the Lord. There is no better description of the role of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the history of the early Church in this hemisphere.  

Our Lady of Guadalupe is the form of a perfectly enculturated evangelization. As Mater Ecclesia, she can help us build a more perfectly enculturated Church as we take up the challenge of evangelization in the Third Millennium. This is why what you have done in having this Cathedral designated the National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe is so important. It is important not only for Mexican Americans, not only for Hispanic Catholics, but for all Catholics in America. It is a major step toward that enculturated Church that must be the future of Catholicism in America. 

When Pope Benedict XIV declared Our Lady of Guadalupe Patroness of New Spain he said, “To no other nation has such a wonder been done.” But courageous missionaries during the past five centuries have made clear this “wonder” was not done for only the evangelization of one nation, but for the evangelization of many nations. 

So, what can you and I do?  We can begin where we are. We can enter more deeply into the mystery of Tepeyac. Earlier, I mentioned the consecration of the Knights of Columbus to Our Lady of Guadalupe. In that way, we formally placed the K of C under Mary’s protection and we implored her blessing on our work as Knights. Last February, my successor, Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly, again went to the Basilica in Mexico City, and consecrated the Knights of Columbus to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Both he and I believe that acts of consecration to Our Lady of Guadalupe can be important as we prepare for the 500th anniversary of her apparition in 2031. 

St. Maximilian Kolbe, known as the “Apostle of Consecration to Mary,” tells us that an act of consecration to Mary is offering the object of our consecration as a gift to Mary so that though her intercession and blessing she may offer our gift to her as a more perfect gift to her Son. 

“Consecration to the Mother of God,” said Pope Pius XII, “is a total gift of self, for the whole of life and for all eternity.” It is, he says, “a gift which is not a mere formality.”   

Acts of consecration to Our Lady of Guadalupe can be building blocks in constructing the civilization of love—consecration of individuals and families. And also, consecration of Catholic associations, schools, health facilities, charities and even businesses—each according to its own character, and each offered as a gift to Mary and through her to her Son. Perhaps most importantly on the parish level regarding the evangelization of families, the consecration of married couples on their wedding day.  

Each act of consecration strengthening Catholic identity, and making Our Lady of Guadalupe the mirror in which the whole Church is reflected. Each one being offered as a living stone in building up the civilization of love. Each one becoming, as it were, a little Tepeyac where the message of unity, harmony and new life radiates to all around it.  

Each one blessed and cared for by Our Lady of Guadalupe. Each one offering a glimpse of what the future might be like if we were to make America Tepeyac. 

  

 

[1] See especially, Pius XI, Iniquis Afflictisque, November 18, 1926. 

[2] John Paul II, Ecclesia in America, (January 22, 1999), no. 11. 

[3] Hans Urs von Balthasar, “Mary in the Church’s Doctrine and Devotion,” in Hans Urs von Balthasar, Joseph Ratzinger, Mary: The Church at the Source, trans. Adrian Walker (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2005), 110. 

[4] Ibid. 

[5] Carl Anderson and Eduardo Chavez, Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of the Civilization of Love (New York: Doubleday, 2009), 36. 

[6] Quoted in Gerhart B. Ladner, The Idea of Reform: Its Impact on Christian Thought and Action in the Age of the Fathers, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1959), 237. 

[7] Henri de Lubac, The Splendor of the Church, Trans. Michael Mason, (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1986), 320. (footnotes omitted.) 

[8] Pope Francis, General Audience Address, October 23, 2913, 

[9] Vladimir Soloviev, The Meaning of Dostoevsky’s “Beauty Will Save the World.” 

[10] Hans Urs von Balthasar, op. cit., 117.