The Feast of Our Lady of Guadaloupe

Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Guadalupe

On March 25, 1999, Cardinal Jorge Medina-Estevez, Prefect of the
Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments,
published a decree declaring the celebration of the Blessed Virgin
Mary of Guadalupe on December 12th as a feast in all the countries of
America. This decree implements the decision of Pope John Paul II as
expressed in his Apostolic Exhortation, Ecclesia in America. In a
letter to Cardinal Medina dated June 25, 1999, Bishop Joseph A
Fiorenza, President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops,
noted that "The Holy Father's decision is particularly gratifying to
the bishops of our episcopal conference in the light of our earlier
decision to establish Our Lady of Guadalupe as a Feast in the dioceses
of the United States of America, as confirmed by a decree of your
Congregation on January 8, 1988 (Prot. N. 1341/87)." The following
unofficial translation of the Latin decree is provided as a service to
our readers.

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CONGREGATION FOR DIVINE WORSHIP AND THE DISCIPLINE OF THE SACRAMENTS

Prot. 803/99/L

DECREE

Concerning the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Guadalupe to be
celebrated annually on December 12 in all America

In consenting to the Divine Word, Mary, the daughter of Adam, became
the Mother of Jesus and, while embracing the salvific will of God with
a full heart and unburdened by any sin, she devoted herself completely
as the handmaid of the Lord to the person and works of her Son,
serving the mystery of redemption under Him and through Him by the
grace of God. She poured Life itself into the world, renewing all
things, and appearing for us as a Mother in the order of grace as
well. Finally, raised to the glory of heaven, she accompanies the
Continued pilgrim Church always and everywhere with motherly love, so
that the Church, contemplating the image of her own perfection and
mission in the holy God-bearer (Theotokos), may instruct all nations
with the praise of the Gospel's salvation, and, by the working of the
Holy Spirit, fill the whole world with children of a new people. For
this reason, the Christian people greatly revere this Mother and
Queen, and invoke her aid in the difficulties and trials of life, so
that she may obtain grace for them by the mercy of God.

The close relationship between this Tender Mother and the Christian
faithful in America was manifested in a wonderful way on the hill
known as Tepeyac, where the Mother of God under the title of the
Blessed Virgin Mary of Guadalupe was already fervently honored for
four centuries as the Empress of all the Americas, signifying by her
own appearance the necessity of a perfect union of the Word of God
with the humanity of native peoples in evangelizing this
Continent. Hence, from the beginning of the modern age, she offered an
extraordinary example of care particularly for the poor and the
indigenous. This cult of the Virgin has been spread by continual
observance even to the present, so that, in approaching the third
millennium of the Savior's incarnation, the members of the Special
Synod of Bishops of America, at the close of their meeting in Rome in
1997, fervently invoked blessed Mary, Virgin of Guadalupe, as
Patroness of all America and as the star of both the first and now of
the new evangelization of this same Continent.

Likewise, the Supreme Pontiff, John Paul II, acceding to the requests
of the synod Fathers, and joyfully receiving their recommendation,
recalled on the first anniversary of the Plenary Council for Latin
American, assembled in Rome, through his Apostolic Exhortation
Eccelsia in America (The Church in America), promulgated on 22
January, 1999 in Mexico City, and then graciously approved in his
homily on the following day, delivered in the Basilica of Our Lady of
Guadalupe, that in all America the celebration of Blessed Mary, the
Virgin of Guadalupe, is to be observed henceforth with the rank of
feast, thereby earnestly desiring that this same Virgin, through whose
intercession the faith of the first disciples was strengthened, would
lead the Church of this Continent with her maternal love and that she
would obtain an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church so that
a new evangelization might flourish by the witness of Christian life.

Therefore, this Dicastery declares that this feast be inscribed into
the calendars of each nation and territory of America on 12th day of
December, so that in each diocese of that Continent it may be
celebrated on the same day annually, while with the rank of a
solemnity where those concessions have been permanently granted by the
Apostolic See by decree or norms already in effect, in favor of the
same territories and their churches.

To those texts already approved for this celebration may be added the
Spanish texts attached to this decree which may be used henceforth and
are hereby declared editiones typicae. Indeed, other vernacular
editions must be devised according to the norm of law, and approved by
the Episcopal Conference and confirmed by the Holy See.

All things to the contrary notwithstanding.

Given from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline for
the Sacraments, on the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, 25
March 1999.

Jorge A. Cardinal Medina Estevez
Prefect

Marius Marini
Sub-Secretary
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