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ANNUAL GUADALUPE PROCESSION

Blessed Mary of Guadalupe continues walking with the People

KCRA slide show here.

In 1981, the Office of Hispanic Apostolate of the Diocese of Stockton began the tradition of walking through the downtown streets of Stockton in a pilgrimage to honor Our Lady of Guadalupe. This was done to commemorate the 450th anniversary of her apparitions to the request of then Bishop of the Diocese, now Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, and under the direction of Rev. Fernando Villalobos, OFM, Episcopal Vicar for the Spanish Speaking.

During the last 30 years, the Latino catholic faithful have walked together as a diocesan family through the downtown street of the city of Stockton. Every year parish groups unite and work together to participate in the pilgrimage.  They bring their own Aztec group dancers, choir and a parish banner. Most of the parishes depict a theme about the message of hope of Virgin Mary in a float. People sing, pray and dance praising the God of life and in gratitude to Our Lady of Guadalupe for her intercession and for having stayed on Juan Diego’s Tilma and at the Tepeyac Hill to hear their laments and as a loving mother, offer remedy and cure for people’s miseries, misfortunes and sorrows. More than ten thousand people gather every year to give tribute to her in this pilgrimage.

Most Rev. Donald Montrose, fourth Bishop of the Diocese of Stockton supported and promoted devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe since his arrival to the Diocese. In 1986 he donated a 6 foot tall image of Our Lady of Guadalupe for the Diocesan Procession. To this date, this is the image that is carried in the procession, accompanying the People of the Diocese of Stockton in their journey to the encounter with her beloved Son, Jesus Christ.  The pilgrimage culminates with the celebration of the Eucharist at the Stockton Arena.

Since its beginning, this celebration has been a special moment of evangelization. In the Apostolic Exhortation “Ecclesia in America” of 1999, John Paul II declared Our Lady of Guadalupe to be Queen of all America and the Star of the first and new evangelization. Since the year 2000, moved by this invocation by the Bishops in the Synod of America, and by the experience of the Encuentro 2000 and the multiple Jubilee Year celebrations, the Spanish speaking community has invited and welcomed the diverse ethnic groups in the Diocese to join in the celebration to honor Virgin Mary.

May Our Lady of Guadalupe continue walking with us in our journey to the encounter of Jesus Christ as we celebrate the 30th annual diocesan Procession in her honor.