Scientology Volunteer Ministers of Mexico City were honored at a special Mass at the Iglesia Santa Maria de las Capuchinas to recognize them for their service.
By sanitizing this and other parts of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and other Catholic and evangelical churches in the city, they helped ensure the health and safety of those gathering to worship as pandemic restrictions began to be eased.
The most visited Catholic pilgrimage destination in the world, some 20 million come to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe each year.
The Virgin of Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico, is said to have appeared to Juan Diego, an indigenous man, in December 1531. The Virgin spoke to him in his own language, Nahuatl, and asked him to build a shrine for her.
Diego went to the bishop to tell him of the Virgin Mary’s appearance and her request, but the bishop did not believe him. The Virgin Mary appeared again and told Juan Diego to go to the hill of Tepeyac, where she had first appeared to him. Despite the bitter December weather he would find roses growing there, she said, and he was to gather them in his cloak and bring them to the bishop. Diego found the roses and filled his cloak with them. When he opened his cloak to show the bishop, the roses fell to the ground leaving an image of the Virgin imprinted on it.
That is how the church, later known as the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, came to be built in 1709. In 1974, with the foundation of the original church sinking, a new basilica was designed and constructed next to the original church.
In ordinary years, as many as 12 million pilgrims visit the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe over the first two weeks of December to celebrate the Virgin’s feast day on December 12, the day when she appeared to Juan Diego the second time. But in December 2020, with coronavirus cases spiking, the Guadalupe Pilgrimage was canceled and the Basilica was closed to visitors.
Teams of Scientology Volunteer Ministers have sanitized numerous churches and offices in the Basilica and throughout Mexico City to ensure the safety of those wishing to worship there.
_____________
The Church of Scientology publishes this blog to help create a better understanding of the freedom of religion and belief and provide news on religious freedom and issues affecting this freedom around the world.
The Founder of the Scientology religion is L. Ron Hubbard and Mr. David Miscavige is the religion’s ecclesiastical leader.
For more information, visit the Scientology website or the Scientology TV network.
