TORONTO - Icons of Our Lady of Guadalupe reached Toronto in late August marking the halfway point on the paintings’ first north to south provincial prayer program facilitated by the Knights of Columbus.
“(The prayer program) has covered the whole top of the province and it’s working its way through southwestern, southern and southeastern (Ontario),” said Joe Salini, the Knights state deputy for Ontario. “Once we do the complete circuit we’ll do it again. We are hoping to do that but we just aren’t sure if there is enough time.”
The icon was in Toronto Aug. 22-28 at Epiphany of Our Lord parish.
According to Salini, the Knights became involved with the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico several years ago through supreme knight Carl Anderson. He developed such a strong connection to Our Lady of Guadalupe, the only apparition of Mary to appear in Mexico, that the Knights adopted her as the fraternal order’s patroness.
As a way to honour their new patroness, the Knights commissioned the production of multiple replica paintings of the relic located in the basilica with the intention of having them travel across their 72 jurisdictions. Enough copies were made that larger jurisdictions, such as Ontario where there are 13 dioceses, were able to circulate several icons. Each one was painted in Mexico and signed by the rector of the basilica. Pope Benedict XVI has also blessed the icons.
Currently eight are travelling across the province making prayer-service stops at parishes where the Knights are represented. The Knights have issued invitations to anyone who wishes to see the icons.
“If we only invited our own parish, that would not be the right objective of the purpose of this. It is to gather as many as possible from the neighbouring parishes also,” said secondary Knight Val Danukarjanto, who is also a deacon at Epiphany of Our Lord. “The focus of Our Lady of Guadalupe prayer program is to pray for life, to defend the sanctity of human life.”
Danukarjanto turned to the history books, and some symbolism, to explain the connection between Our Lady of Guadalupe and the pro-life movement. Appearing to a peasant named Juan Diego in the 1640s, the apparition spoke to him in the native language Nahuatl requesting a church, which became the basilica, be built on the Hill of Tepeyac, Mexico. It is said that she described herself using the term “coatlaxopeuh,” which loosely translates to “the one who crushes the serpent.” At the time “the serpent” symbolized the Aztecs, who frequently performed human sacrifices, because of the elaborate use of snake images within their temples. Several years after completing the basilica many of the natives converted to Christianity.
“The role of Mary as Our Lady of Guadalupe in this century is to crush the serpent and end our own era’s resumption of human sacrifice through approved abortion,” said Danukarjanto. “Prayer is our most powerful weapon against contraception, abortion, euthanasia and other attacks against the sanctity of human life.”
He isn’t the only one to see this connection. In 1999 Pope John Paul II proclaimed Our Lady of Guadalupe the protectress of unborn children as well as the patroness of the Americas and empress of Latin America.
This is the 15th time the Knights have facilitated a prayer program where a sacred image is the focal point, the first occurring in 1979, which also focused on Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Since the current tour began last fall the icons have made more than 100 stops. About 15,000 people have visited, a number expected to drastically increase, said Salini, now that the journey has taken them to the more densely populated southern region of the province.