Opening Remarks

 Carl A. Anderson, Supreme Knight
Knights of Columbus

Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson

Your Excellencies, Msgr. Chávez, brother Knights, ladies and gentlemen, fellow Guadalupanos, it is an honor to join you for this important gathering on the history, meaning and message of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  Your presence here today is a testament to the power of the message of love that Our Lady brought to this hemisphere nearly 500 years ago. You probably all know that this festival is the conclusion of the First Marian Congress on Our Lady of Guadalupe. You may also know that Msgr. Chávez and I have recently written and published a book on Our Lady of Guadalupe. But what you may not know is how important Our Lady Guadalupe is to me personally.
 
I have the privilege of serving as head of the world’s largest Catholic family service organization, the Knights of Columbus, and the message of Our Lady of Guadalupe is central to our mission.  She has been central to the works of the Knights of Columbus for more than a century. In 1905, our first council established in Mexico was Guadalupe Council 1050. When 45  American bishops led by Archbishop Cantwell of Los Angeles visited the Guadalupe Basilica in Mexico City in 1941, the Knights of Columbus served as the honor guard.

It was that event that led Archbishop Luis Maria Martinez to send the Archdiocese of Los Angeles the relic of the tilma of St. Juan Diego that we have with us today on loan from the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels through the graciousness of Cardinal Roger Mahony.

Given the Knight’s extensive history with Our Lady of Guadalupe, my own personal devotion to her, and her central role in the Catholic faith of this hemisphere, it seemed the obvious choice to me when I became Supreme Knight in 2000 to dedicate my tenure in this office to Our Lady of Guadalupe at the foot of her image in Mexico City.  I believed then, and continue to believe that in the historical event of Our Lady of Guadalupe, we have a blueprint for our own work in the new evangelization. 

Our Lady of Guadalupe is the Empress of the Americas. She calls all of us to unity within the Gospel message of her son.

Mindful of our important principle of unity, the Knights of Columbus has been working to unite people of faith throughout our hemisphere, since 1882 in the United States, since 1897 in Canada, since 1905 in Mexico and since 1909 in Cuba.  An organization that is thoroughly “American” in the broadest sense, the Knights of Columbus have sought to strengthen the faith of all those who live in the Americas.

It is the rosary, a prayer to Our Lady that we will say together this evening, that is the cornerstone of our prayer as Knights of Columbus. Each new member of the Knights is given a rosary and is encouraged to say the rosary with his family. All of us gathered here today are children of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and we should view our time together as time with our spiritual family, learning about the mother we all share.

At our Congress earlier this week we heard from some of the most learned and well-respected experts on the history, science and message of Our Lady of Guadalupe. This evening, we will learn even more about the Virgen de Guadalupe from the man who oversaw St. Juan Diego’s sainthood process. We will hear about the historical context of Our Lady’s apparition to Juan Diego in 1531 and about the meaning of the beautiful codex on her dress. And those of you who attended the congress have also learned about the secrets her eyes reveal, about the power of her message to captivate five centuries of artists.

But none of this learning, none of these words will matter unless we take her message to heart. We must see the message of Our Lady of Guadalupe, not as something distant, but as a present reality in our lives, a reality that can transform our lives.

Pope John Paul II told us that the future of humanity passes by way of the family.  The Church continues to teach that “the family is the cornerstone of society!”  As sons and daughters of Our Lady of Guadalupe, it is up to each of us to make sure that this cornerstone instills values that we can be proud of. The family is where our children learn what life is all about. The family is where the next generation is given the tools to live a life of Catholic virtue.

And nowhere is the future of the family more important than in our hemisphere. For – in no small part because of Our Lady of Guadalupe – we live on the continent of baptized Christians, a place of great hope for the future of our Church. We live on a continent that has been uniquely blessed by the Mother of God.  Almost 500 years ago, Mary appeared to Saint Juan Diego in Mexico.
 
There, she began the greatest conversion to Catholicism in history. At a time when the Church was losing millions in Europe, Mary and her image left on Saint Juan Diego’s tilma, called millions to conversion in the Americas.

Of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pope Benedict the 14th said: “To no other nation has such a wonder been done.” At the time he said this, that nation stretched – as many have noted – from Seattle to the Southern tip of Argentina. And thus Pope Pius XII proclaimed Our Lady of Guadalupe “Empress of the Americas.” 

So, 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 de un hemisferio cristiano.

While some continents have never been Christian, and while many European churches are nearly empty, ours are still full. Here 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.

Our continent is one drawn together by shared history. On a historical level, all of its countries – to some degree – are nations of immigrants and Native Americans. On a spiritual level, all of these countries share a common heritage of Christianity and baptism. And on a personal level, every person on this continent shares a mother: Our Lady of Guadalupe.

From Canada to Argentina, all of us who live in the Americas are called, like Juan Diego, to bridge the divide of cultures.  We are called to present the message of Our Lady of Guadalupe, as mother of the civilization of love.

Remember this! What unites us as a Christian family, as children of a mother who has watched over us for nearly 500 years, is far greater than anything that divides us.  And if we who live on the American continent have a shared past, we have a shared future as well: a future of unity in faith.

The rosary – which we will say today – and our love for Our Lady, especially under her title of Our Lady of Guadalupe, are our common bond in the Catholic hemisphere. This is the reason we will pray the rosary today in a variety of languages. Because Mary is the mother of each of us, regardless of where we are from or what language we speak.

As we look around this area, it is clear that Phoenix is a microcosm of the future of our country.  Here we have a cosmopolitan group, from many diverse backgrounds, speaking many languages, but all unified in by our common bond of faith.
 
I think it is remarkable – even providential – that we have gathered today for this event in Phoenix.  The early Christian fathers Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria saw in the mythical phoenix – a bird that was consumed by fire and then reborn every 500 years – a sign of the resurrection.  And many Christian artists and spiritual writers since have made that connection.

But the phoenix can have an equally important meaning for us here today. Many have pointed out – not always to good effect – that in 1531, Our Lady of Guadalupe’s message – like that mythical bird – brought a renewed faith and a spiritual rebirth from the ruins of the Aztec empire. But the fact is that she brought a desperate people to a new life in her son.

Nearly 500 years later, we face a situation not unlike that in the 1500s. Mass attendance at churches throughout Europe has plunged. Many people on other continents do not know Christ at all. Yet in the midst of this, we stand together, on a continent with a Christian heritage in common.

We must rise, like the phoenix, to spread the Gospel of Love of Jesus Christ. The Gospel brought to us so lovingly by Christ’s mother, the Virgen de Guadalupe.  And how can we arise to do this? By embracing our neighbors in charity and in faith. By witnessing to all through the way we live our lives, and by working closely with our priests and bishops. By living our own lives in commitment to charity, to love, and to building a civilization of love by our public witness. Let us remember the example of Saint Juan Diego, who was a layman, but who – working closely with the Bishop – brought the light of Christ, and his mother, to an entire hemisphere.

As a layman, Juan Diego is a role model for the Knights of Columbus. As a layman, he should be a model for all of us since the laity has a very important role to play in the revitalization of the Church.

Speaking earlier this year, Pope Benedict said: “[C]oncerning lay people, [t]hey must no longer be viewed as ‘collaborators’ of the clergy but truly recognized as ‘co-responsible,’ for the Church's being and action, thereby fostering the consolidation of a mature and committed laity.”

And nowhere is the Catholic laity stronger than in this hemisphere.
In our nation – not the most Catholic one in the Americas by any means – 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. In the Knights of Columbus, they’re our brother Knights, our fellow Caballeros de Colón, and they have been so since September 1905, when we established our first council, Guadalupe Council 1050, in Mexico City.

We might think of Hispanics in the Church in terms of mythical phoenix. Nearly 500 years after Our Lady of Guadalupe’s transformation of this hemisphere, our Hispanic brothers and sisters represent the rebirth of Catholicism in the United States. Since 1960, 71% of the growth of the Catholic Church in the United States has been Hispanic. Hispanics now make up more than 35% of all Catholics in the United States, and that number is growing. Today, five centuries after Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego and brought a new spiritual life into the ruins of a devastated empire, Hispanics have taken up her image and her message and have breathed renewed life into the Church of the United States.

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.
Nuestra Señora 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.”  That must include every person. It must include the immigrant. It must include the unborn. It must include the intellectually disabled.

Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego – a humble Indian. She appeared as a mestiza – a union of European and Native American cultures. She also appeared pregnant, with her son. Following her example, we must embrace the immigrant, realizing that he or she has an inherent dignity as a person, and that – especially here in the Southwest – we most often share a transcendent bond: a bond of faith.

Let us follow the example of the pregnant Virgen de Guadalupe and embrace the cause of the unborn, realizing that every life is precious in the eyes of God, and that it is our duty to help any mother in need, through our love and our charity, to choose the beauty of life for her child. Following the example of Our Lady of Guadalupe, we must embrace the marginalized, those most at risk, those most disdained, and we must help them to see that they have a God, and a mother who cares for them.

Our Lady of Guadalupe brought a message for the most powerful and the most humble. Her message was for the elderly, like Juan Diego’s uncle Juan Bernardino, and those not yet born. It was for the Spaniard and the Indian. In short, it was for everyone. And 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 our common mother, let us remember the words of Our Holy Father Pope Benedict: “May the Holy Spirit make you creative in charity, persevering in your commitments, and brave in your initiatives, so that you will be able to offer your contribution to the building up of the ‘civilization of love.’”

Pope John Paul II once wrote:  “Nothing can replace the heart of a mother always present and waiting in her home.”  Those of us who live on this great continent should know by now that we share a common home.  Those of us who are Catholics also know that we share a common mother whose heart is always present and waiting for us.

Let us join our hearts together with hers to build a common home for all – a true civilization of love. And let us begin today.  Let us remember, if each Catholic in this hemisphere were to live life based on love of God and neighbor, that would be millions, and millions would be a civilization.

Humildemente pedimos la intercesión de Santa María de Guadalupe para todos los que vivimos en este Continente de la Esperanza  y el Amore.
 
¡Viva Santa María de Guadalupe!