Diocese sees record turnout at Guadalupe feast day

PROSPECT HEIGHTS — A RECORD 4,400 WORSHIPPERS – many of them young people – attended two Masses marking the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph in Prospect Heights last Friday, Dec. 12, according to officials for the Diocese of Brooklyn.

The turnout surpassed last year’s attendance and included participants from 54 Brooklyn and Queens parishes, who were undeterred by the current immigration situation.

Bishop Robert Brennan called the youth-heavy crowd a hopeful sign for the future of the church in the Diocese of Brooklyn, home to roughly 175,000 Mexican-Americans. The celebration featured processions back to home parishes and prayers despite immigration enforcement fears, which clergy said did not deter attendance.

Organizers described the feast as the diocese’s largest annual event, rooted in faith, culture and tradition. Auxiliary Bishop emeritus Octavio Cisneros was the main celebrant at one of the Masses.

The feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe commemorates the day in 1531 when St. Mary is believed to have appeared as an indigenous woman to a peasant named Juan Diego. He received his vision atop the hill of Tepeyac on the north side of present-day Mexico City.

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