On Saturday 9 December, the Academy of Catholic Leaders, in collaboration with more than 12 religious institutions from around the world, has prepared a unique event that seeks to reflect the importance of the Guadalupan event. This meeting is part of the celebration of the Guadalupe novena called by Pope Francis in preparation for the upcoming celebration of the 500th anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady to St. Juan Diego.
José Antonio Rosas, Director General of the Academy, comments: “This event is very relevant for us, because it allows us to make firm our mission that we want to reach 2031 with a generation of Catholic politicians, who put in vogue the message of Our Lady, and who care for the most needy in our society as she did for San Juan Diego”.
Rodrigo Guerra, another of the organisers, underlines the relevance of the event: “Providence places us before three moments that we need to prepare in the heart of each person and in the heart of our peoples: the Ordinary Jubilee of 2025, the V Centenary of the Guadalupan Event in 2031 and the II millennium of the Redemption in 2033. In the end, these are not three disjointed issues, but God is giving us these dates to invite us to a new conversion, more mature, more integral, both individually and socially. Faith in the “true God for Whom we live” came to the Americas through the Virgin at Tepeyac. She is the one who teaches us to “walk together”, as brothers and sisters, not as adversaries. She is the one who gives us our profound identity at the regional level. The Seminar organised by the Academy of Catholic Leaders in collaboration with CLAR, ODUCAL, CAL and other organisations, is in this sense, a great opportunity to immerse ourselves in a spiritual, pastoral and cultural dynamism that awakens us to the new awareness that we all need to follow Jesus Christ, in the Church, with Mary, under the guidance of the Pope and responding to the cry of the poorest”.
The event will feature a number of speakers who will take an important part of the Guadalupan event, including Dr. Maria Luisa Aspe, former president of the Board of Directors of the Mexican Institute of Social Doctrine, Fr. David Jasso, Vice Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Monterrey, and Father Leandro H. Chitarroni, founder of the Higher Institute of Guadalupan Studies. They will speak about the milestone of Guadalupe.
In addition, we will have an additional panel to discuss the various faces of Our Lady on the continent. This panel will highlight the following aspects:
- Mary, the cornerstone of piety on the continent.
- Our Lady of Aparecida – Brazil.
- Our Lady of Caridad del Cobre – Cuba.
- Our Lady of Coromoto – Venezuela.
This panel will be accompanied by Dr. Deyanira María Flórez, international expert in Mariology, Cardinal Diego Padrón, Archbishop Emeritus of Cumaná, Archbishop Dionisio Guillermo García, Primate Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, and Archbishop Darci José Nicioli C.SS.R., Archbishop of Diamantina. Together, they will provide a deep and enriching vision of the different faces of Our Lady on the continent.
The event will take place at the following times:
09:00 to 12:30 for Mexico, Costa Rica and Chicago.
From 10:00 to 13:30 for New York, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador.
From 11:00 to 14:30 for Bolivia, Venezuela and Dominican Republic.
From 12:00 to 15:30 for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay.
From 16:00 to 19:30 for Europe and Equatorial Guinea.
To register for the event, you can do so through the following link: https://liderescatolicos.net/guadalupe2/inscripcion.
For more information, please visit our website: https://liderescatolicos.net/guadalupe2/
The International Academy of Catholic Leaders is an international centre of formation in the Social Doctrine of the Church with presence in 40 dioceses in 13 countries: Chile, Brazil, Peru, Uruguay, Paraguay, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Mexico, USA and Spain. To date, it has more than 35,000 alumni from on-site and virtual programmes.
