Archbishop José H. Gomez will celebrate a pilgrimage Mass Saturday at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City with more than 300 faithful from across the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
The Mass is scheduled for 9 a.m. and will include the presentation of roughly 45,000 prayer intentions submitted by Southern California Catholics for the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe, according to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
The service will be concelebrated by more than 15 priests and three deacons, along with Auxiliary Bishops Brian Nunes, Marc Trudeau, Matthew Elshoff and Slawomir Szkredka.
Archdiocese officials said the prayer intentions were collected during the annual pilgrimage of images of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Juan Diego to parishes, schools and cemeteries throughout the archdiocese, as well as at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Catholic Cemeteries and Mortuaries locations and through online submissions.
Saturday’s gathering marks the seventh year that Gomez has led the pilgrimage Mass at the Mexico City basilica.
Pilgrims attending the service are expected to include parishioners from Blessed Sacrament in Hollywood, Holy Family in Glendale, Presentation of Mary in Los Angeles, St. Anthony in El Segundo, St. John Fisher in Rancho Palos Verdes, St. John of God in Norwalk and St. Rose of Lima in Maywood.
The pilgrimage comes as Catholics commemorate the 495th anniversary of the reported appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill in 1531.
This year also marks the 50th anniversary of the consecration of the modern Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which stands adjacent to the original church completed in 1709 and houses the tilma, or cloak, of St. Juan Diego bearing the image associated with the apparition.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles also is home to what church officials describe as the only known relic of the tilma, which was presented by the archbishop of Mexico City following a pilgrimage to the basilica led by Los Angeles Archbishop John J. Cantwell in 1941.
The Mass will be livestreamed on the website lacatholics.org/pilgrimage/.