ANNIVERSARY OF AN ATTACK
A Jubilee Year for the Virgin of Guadalupe Archdiocese of Mexico City Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes, Archbishop of Mexico, blessed and opened the Holy Door of the Basilica of Guadalupe on Sunday 14 November, marking the 100th anniversary of the bomb attack on the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, which took place on 14 November, 1921, in which miraculously, the cloak of San Juan Diego was undamaged. With the opening of the Holy Door, an extraordinary Jubilee Year has begun, during which the faithful will be able to obtain a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions established by the Apostolic Penitentiary. The Year will end on 20 November 2022, the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. The attack took place on the morning of 14 November 1921, when a man placed a bomb hidden in a
DECEMBER 2021
Oremus
bunch of flowers in front of the sacred image. In the explosion, the altar and the marble sculptures that flanked it were scarred; a heavy bronze crucifix was bent; the foundations of the old Cathedral were also damaged. But the glass covering the image of the Virgin was not even scratched. This bomb attack caused great shock among the Mexicans, because in addition to being a serious sacrilegious act, it also threatened the identity of the Mexicans, since the Virgin of Guadalupe was the banner with which the 'Father of the Fatherland', Fr Miguel Hidalgo, had rallied people in their struggle for independence from Spain 100 years earlier. Five years later, Mexico was plunged into the War of the Cristeros (1926 - 1929), a peasant rebellion against the anticlericalism of the Mexican government.
Our Lady of Guadalupe has a certain importance for us here at the Cathedral, as a large copy of her image (seen here) hangs in the Outer Sacristy, watching over the preparations for Mass and each procession in and out of the Cathedral.
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