Our Lady of Guadalupe

U.S., Canadian seminarians prepare in Mexico to serve Hispanic community #Catholic In response to the growing Hispanic Catholic community in the United States and Canada, seminarians from both countries are being sent to study in Mexico at the Hispanic Seminary of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a multicultural formation center for future priests.The seminary was founded on Aug. 31, 1999, by the then-primate archbishop of Mexico, Cardinal Norberto Rivera, after the Catholic Church recognized the need to form priests capable of understanding the cultural richness of Hispanics in North America. Study group at the Hispanic seminary in Mexico. | Credit: EWTN Noticias Rivera was inspired by the call issued by St. John Paul II in the January 1999 apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in America, which called the American Church to a new evangelization.The seminary opened in August 2000 with the arrival of five seminarians from the archdioceses of Los Angeles and Milwaukee. Since then, more than 200 graduates from at least 55 dioceses across the U.S. have passed through the formation center.‘A Church without borders’In an interview with ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, Father Juan Antonio Vértiz Gutiérrez, the seminary’s rector, explained that the learning experience goes beyond language. The seminarians gain firsthand insight into what the Church in Mexico is like as well as its ecclesial and cultural traditions, particularly through apostolates. Seminarians visit the Isabel the Catholic Monarch nursing home in Mexico City. | Credit: Hispanic Seminary of Our Lady of Guadalupe According to the priest, this enables them to “better serve our fellow countrymen and our brothers and sisters of Hispanic origin” in their home dioceses in the U.S. He emphasized that this formation helps these young men understand two distinct cultural realities that, while united in faith, have different cultural expressions.For Vértiz, one of the greatest beauties of Catholicism is that it “doesn’t have any borders.” In a time marked by tensions stemming from immigration policies, he noted that the experience of the Hispanic seminary demonstrates that for the Catholic Church, regardless of one’s background, every person “already belongs to the family of the children of God.”The programLife at the seminary follows the rhythm of any house of priestly formation but with a particular emphasis on cultural encounter. Mornings are dedicated to philosophical and theological studies at Lumen Gentium Catholic University, while in the afternoons, seminarians delve deeper into language learning and spiritual formation.During Holy Week, seminarians are often sent to communities outside Mexico City.The admissions process is typically conducted through diocesan vocations offices in the U.S. “We do not accept young men who do not belong to a diocese,” the rector explained. Currently, the seminary hosts 16 young men hailing from California, Nevada, Washington, Texas, Illinois, Alabama, and Georgia. A map marks the seminarians’ states of origin. | Credit: EWTN Noticias Diverse testimonies of faithRamsés Yates, originally from the Diocese of Yakima, Washington, arrived at the seminary a year and a half ago to complete his theological formation and learn Spanish.In an interview with ACI Prensa, he said his experience in Mexican communities has filled him with “much hope and much joy.” In them, he said, it’s possible to witness what it means to “be a community that lives out Catholicism to the fullest.”He noted that he is eagerly preparing to return to Yakima, knowing that he will now be able to speak “with many more people in my diocese, people with whom I previously could not communicate effectively. That fills me with great enthusiasm.”Ramón Pérez, originally from Guanajuato, Mexico, migrated to Fresno, California, at the age of 17. There, his life was defined by work until he felt “the call to the priesthood, to a more complete dedication to the service of the Church.” A seminarian prays at the Hispanic Seminary of Our Lady of Guadalupe. | Credit: EWTN Noticias He told ACI Prensa that following a lengthy process of discernment, he requested admission to the seminary. His diocese decided to send him to Mexico “to continue nurturing my culture and to support the various people entering the United States” from Spanish-speaking countries.The seminarian said the experience has enabled him “to know and become conscious of my origins, my roots, and my culture, of where I was born and where I come from.” Growing up in two different cultures, he acknowledged, can be challenging, but it has also “profoundly shaped this aspect of my vocation.”This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
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U.S., Canadian seminarians prepare in Mexico to serve Hispanic community #Catholic In response to the growing Hispanic Catholic community in the United States and Canada, seminarians from both countries are being sent to study in Mexico at the Hispanic Seminary of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a multicultural formation center for future priests.The seminary was founded on Aug. 31, 1999, by the then-primate archbishop of Mexico, Cardinal Norberto Rivera, after the Catholic Church recognized the need to form priests capable of understanding the cultural richness of Hispanics in North America. Study group at the Hispanic seminary in Mexico. | Credit: EWTN Noticias Rivera was inspired by the call issued by St. John Paul II in the January 1999 apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in America, which called the American Church to a new evangelization.The seminary opened in August 2000 with the arrival of five seminarians from the archdioceses of Los Angeles and Milwaukee. Since then, more than 200 graduates from at least 55 dioceses across the U.S. have passed through the formation center.‘A Church without borders’In an interview with ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, Father Juan Antonio Vértiz Gutiérrez, the seminary’s rector, explained that the learning experience goes beyond language. The seminarians gain firsthand insight into what the Church in Mexico is like as well as its ecclesial and cultural traditions, particularly through apostolates. Seminarians visit the Isabel the Catholic Monarch nursing home in Mexico City. | Credit: Hispanic Seminary of Our Lady of Guadalupe According to the priest, this enables them to “better serve our fellow countrymen and our brothers and sisters of Hispanic origin” in their home dioceses in the U.S. He emphasized that this formation helps these young men understand two distinct cultural realities that, while united in faith, have different cultural expressions.For Vértiz, one of the greatest beauties of Catholicism is that it “doesn’t have any borders.” In a time marked by tensions stemming from immigration policies, he noted that the experience of the Hispanic seminary demonstrates that for the Catholic Church, regardless of one’s background, every person “already belongs to the family of the children of God.”The programLife at the seminary follows the rhythm of any house of priestly formation but with a particular emphasis on cultural encounter. Mornings are dedicated to philosophical and theological studies at Lumen Gentium Catholic University, while in the afternoons, seminarians delve deeper into language learning and spiritual formation.During Holy Week, seminarians are often sent to communities outside Mexico City.The admissions process is typically conducted through diocesan vocations offices in the U.S. “We do not accept young men who do not belong to a diocese,” the rector explained. Currently, the seminary hosts 16 young men hailing from California, Nevada, Washington, Texas, Illinois, Alabama, and Georgia. A map marks the seminarians’ states of origin. | Credit: EWTN Noticias Diverse testimonies of faithRamsés Yates, originally from the Diocese of Yakima, Washington, arrived at the seminary a year and a half ago to complete his theological formation and learn Spanish.In an interview with ACI Prensa, he said his experience in Mexican communities has filled him with “much hope and much joy.” In them, he said, it’s possible to witness what it means to “be a community that lives out Catholicism to the fullest.”He noted that he is eagerly preparing to return to Yakima, knowing that he will now be able to speak “with many more people in my diocese, people with whom I previously could not communicate effectively. That fills me with great enthusiasm.”Ramón Pérez, originally from Guanajuato, Mexico, migrated to Fresno, California, at the age of 17. There, his life was defined by work until he felt “the call to the priesthood, to a more complete dedication to the service of the Church.” A seminarian prays at the Hispanic Seminary of Our Lady of Guadalupe. | Credit: EWTN Noticias He told ACI Prensa that following a lengthy process of discernment, he requested admission to the seminary. His diocese decided to send him to Mexico “to continue nurturing my culture and to support the various people entering the United States” from Spanish-speaking countries.The seminarian said the experience has enabled him “to know and become conscious of my origins, my roots, and my culture, of where I was born and where I come from.” Growing up in two different cultures, he acknowledged, can be challenging, but it has also “profoundly shaped this aspect of my vocation.”This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

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A seminary was established in Mexico in 1999 to serve the growing Hispanic community in North America, forming future priests who learn Spanish as well as ecclesial and cultural traditions.

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Bishop explains how Our Lady of Guadalupe can reach postmodern Silicon Valley #Catholic In a world marked by secularization and cultural fragmentation, Our Lady of Guadalupe remains a privileged path for proclaiming the Gospel, said Bishop Óscar Cantú of San Jose, California, as he shared how a recent event dedicated to the Virgin Mary illuminates the mission of the Church in the heart of Silicon Valley.During the recent “Theological and Pastoral Congress on the Guadalupe Event,” held in Mexico, the prelate described his diocese as a former valley of fruit orchards now transformed into the heart of global technology, home to world-class companies such as Google, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, and Nvidia.There, Cantú explained, people from India, China, Latin America, Africa, and many other countries live together, bringing with them their religions or their religious “indifference.”He spoke of “a strong secularization” there, calling it a “society that proudly proclaims itself postmodern, without need for God or religion.” He added that many “no longer have the time or space for religion” and that they “prefer modern practices” such as yoga or meditation, which they call mindfulness, which is “meditation without transcendence.”The bishop wants the pastoral and spiritual preparation for the 50th anniversary of the Diocese of San José in 2031 to be marked by Our Lady of Guadalupe, who he hopes will serve as a point of reference and model.Using Our Lady of Guadalupe’s methodology in Silicon ValleyThe bishop posed a direct challenge to priests, deacons, religious, and laity of his diocese: “How can we apply the methodology of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which she used 500 years ago in Mexico, now, in Silicon Valley, in a postmodern world?”He said the Spanish friars “did not have much success in evangelizing” because they arrived with the conquistadors, who used aggression and force. “But Our Lady had a great success that the friars could not have imagined. Millions of hearts were touched and transformed in a short time.”Cantú enumerated the key elements of this Guadalupan pedagogy, beginning with beauty and maternal tenderness of her words to Juan Diego: “‘My dearest Juan Diego, the littlest of my sons.’ Whose heart made of stone like we have in our Silicon Valley wouldn’t melt with those words?” he asked. He also emphasized how Mary “spoke to him in his language, not in Spanish. She used the symbolism of the Indigenous people, a codex that bore witness to what she recounted, which bore witness to what Juan Diego later told the other Indigenous people.” He recalled the Christological way the Virgin introduced herself, identifying herself as “the Mother of the God by whom we live,” and how she thus introduced “the beauty of truth” in contrast to the old logic of human sacrifice.Another element that Cantú emphasized is the role of the laity and, in particular, the poor. He highlighted that the Virgin involves Juan Diego in the mission of the Church when she tells him: “It is necessary that you go to the bishop.” He commented that “participation brings dignity and is an expression of dignity,” and that aspects of synodality are already evident in Guadalupe: participation and a voice within the ecclesial community.The bishop noted that Juan Diego’s participation does not create a separate structure, because “we shouldn’t create a parallel Church but rather everything should be under the authority, the structure that the Son of the Virgin left us, which is a hierarchical Church, with respect for the magisterium, but the magisterium, in turn, with the participation and listening of everyone, everyone, everyone.” For this reason, he defined it as “a hierarchical and synodal Church.”Among the elements the prelate highlighted is the concept of the sacred little house as a Church of mercy, a house where wounded humanity is welcomed: a “little house of love and compassion.”Our Lady of Guadalupe resonates with migrant communitiesCantú explained that in his diocese, faith has remained alive thanks to refugees and immigrants: Hispanics, Filipinos, Vietnamese, Indians, and Africans, many of them with histories of having to leave their native lands and discrimination.The Virgin of Guadalupe becomes a bridge of identity and solace there, not only for Mexicans, he noted. To illustrate this, he recounted an experience in a trilingual parish (Vietnamese, Filipino, and Hispanic) during a Mass in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe.The bishop arrived prepared to celebrate Mass in Spanish with the Hispanic community, but discovered that about half of those present were Vietnamese, so he decided to preach by including his own story as the son of Mexican immigrants in Texas.“In Texas, many times Americans didn’t see me purely as American because my parents were born in another country, and at home they spoke Spanish; and when I went to visit my cousins ​​in Monterrey, they also didn’t see me as Mexican, so, well, I felt like a bit of an outsider.”As he shared this experience of not belonging, Cantú observed the faces of the Vietnamese faithful: “I saw in their faces that they understood, as refugees who left their country 30 or 40 years ago, that perhaps they never had the opportunity to learn the language well, to fully understand American politics or culture, that for the rest of their lives they felt like guests. And it was, I believe, at that moment that they identified with Juan Diego, whom the Virgin received in her little house.”This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
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Bishop explains how Our Lady of Guadalupe can reach postmodern Silicon Valley #Catholic In a world marked by secularization and cultural fragmentation, Our Lady of Guadalupe remains a privileged path for proclaiming the Gospel, said Bishop Óscar Cantú of San Jose, California, as he shared how a recent event dedicated to the Virgin Mary illuminates the mission of the Church in the heart of Silicon Valley.During the recent “Theological and Pastoral Congress on the Guadalupe Event,” held in Mexico, the prelate described his diocese as a former valley of fruit orchards now transformed into the heart of global technology, home to world-class companies such as Google, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, and Nvidia.There, Cantú explained, people from India, China, Latin America, Africa, and many other countries live together, bringing with them their religions or their religious “indifference.”He spoke of “a strong secularization” there, calling it a “society that proudly proclaims itself postmodern, without need for God or religion.” He added that many “no longer have the time or space for religion” and that they “prefer modern practices” such as yoga or meditation, which they call mindfulness, which is “meditation without transcendence.”The bishop wants the pastoral and spiritual preparation for the 50th anniversary of the Diocese of San José in 2031 to be marked by Our Lady of Guadalupe, who he hopes will serve as a point of reference and model.Using Our Lady of Guadalupe’s methodology in Silicon ValleyThe bishop posed a direct challenge to priests, deacons, religious, and laity of his diocese: “How can we apply the methodology of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which she used 500 years ago in Mexico, now, in Silicon Valley, in a postmodern world?”He said the Spanish friars “did not have much success in evangelizing” because they arrived with the conquistadors, who used aggression and force. “But Our Lady had a great success that the friars could not have imagined. Millions of hearts were touched and transformed in a short time.”Cantú enumerated the key elements of this Guadalupan pedagogy, beginning with beauty and maternal tenderness of her words to Juan Diego: “‘My dearest Juan Diego, the littlest of my sons.’ Whose heart made of stone like we have in our Silicon Valley wouldn’t melt with those words?” he asked. He also emphasized how Mary “spoke to him in his language, not in Spanish. She used the symbolism of the Indigenous people, a codex that bore witness to what she recounted, which bore witness to what Juan Diego later told the other Indigenous people.” He recalled the Christological way the Virgin introduced herself, identifying herself as “the Mother of the God by whom we live,” and how she thus introduced “the beauty of truth” in contrast to the old logic of human sacrifice.Another element that Cantú emphasized is the role of the laity and, in particular, the poor. He highlighted that the Virgin involves Juan Diego in the mission of the Church when she tells him: “It is necessary that you go to the bishop.” He commented that “participation brings dignity and is an expression of dignity,” and that aspects of synodality are already evident in Guadalupe: participation and a voice within the ecclesial community.The bishop noted that Juan Diego’s participation does not create a separate structure, because “we shouldn’t create a parallel Church but rather everything should be under the authority, the structure that the Son of the Virgin left us, which is a hierarchical Church, with respect for the magisterium, but the magisterium, in turn, with the participation and listening of everyone, everyone, everyone.” For this reason, he defined it as “a hierarchical and synodal Church.”Among the elements the prelate highlighted is the concept of the sacred little house as a Church of mercy, a house where wounded humanity is welcomed: a “little house of love and compassion.”Our Lady of Guadalupe resonates with migrant communitiesCantú explained that in his diocese, faith has remained alive thanks to refugees and immigrants: Hispanics, Filipinos, Vietnamese, Indians, and Africans, many of them with histories of having to leave their native lands and discrimination.The Virgin of Guadalupe becomes a bridge of identity and solace there, not only for Mexicans, he noted. To illustrate this, he recounted an experience in a trilingual parish (Vietnamese, Filipino, and Hispanic) during a Mass in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe.The bishop arrived prepared to celebrate Mass in Spanish with the Hispanic community, but discovered that about half of those present were Vietnamese, so he decided to preach by including his own story as the son of Mexican immigrants in Texas.“In Texas, many times Americans didn’t see me purely as American because my parents were born in another country, and at home they spoke Spanish; and when I went to visit my cousins ​​in Monterrey, they also didn’t see me as Mexican, so, well, I felt like a bit of an outsider.”As he shared this experience of not belonging, Cantú observed the faces of the Vietnamese faithful: “I saw in their faces that they understood, as refugees who left their country 30 or 40 years ago, that perhaps they never had the opportunity to learn the language well, to fully understand American politics or culture, that for the rest of their lives they felt like guests. And it was, I believe, at that moment that they identified with Juan Diego, whom the Virgin received in her little house.”This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

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Bishop Óscar Cantú of San Jose, California, explains how the highly secularized society there can receive the message and imagery of Our Lady of Guadalupe in a way that is meaningful to them.

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