Pope Francis shared a heartfelt video message addressed to Mexicans in which he reminded the country of its “great fortune” in having the Virgin of Guadalupe and encouraged all Mexicans to “continue being Guadalupanos [devotees of Our Lady of Guadalupe].”
The video was released Oct. 28 by Héctor Sulaimán Saldivar, founding member of the pontifical foundation Scholas Ocurrentes in Mexico. In the recording, Pope Francis recalled his two visits to the country, one before becoming pontiff and another in 2016 on an apostolic trip.
On that Feb. 13, 2016, trip, the Holy Father visited Guadalupe Basilica, where he prayed in silence before the image of the Virgin and celebrated a Eucharist at the shrine.
“When I was sitting looking at the Virgin of Guadalupe … time passed, they had to take me away; I didn’t realize it,” the pope recalled in the video.
“You Mexicans are very fortunate, [to have] the Lady, the Virgin of Guadalupe, the mother of the God ‘through whom we live,’” the Holy Father said.
“Turn to her,” he added, according to a Catholic News Agency report.
Mexico has a population of about 126 million people, of which almost 80% declare themselves Catholic, according to the country’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography.
Pope Francis shared that he has been told that “even those who do not believe in God” venerate the Virgin of Guadalupe, and the pontiff urged Mexicans to “continue to be Guadalupanos.”
“May God bless you,” he concluded.
