Join diocese's celebration of Mary with various cultures

Friday, Sep. 12, 2014

SALT LAKE CITY – The Virgin Mary will be honored in her various representations by different cultural Catholic communities at the Intercultural Marian Celebration, Sept. 28 at Saint Thomas More Catholic Church.

Mary, the Mother of God, has many titles; Utah Catholics are perhaps most familiar with her being called “Queen of America” and “Our Lady of Guadalupe.” However, she is revered by different names by every Catholic culture represented in the Diocese of Salt Lake City: Hispanics, Africans, Koreans, Native Americans, Tongans, Filipinos, Samoans, Croatians, Poles, Germans and Canadians, all of whom will participate in the celebration honoring the different representations of the Virgin from many countries of the world.

On Sept. 7, organizers of this intercultural celebration gathered at Fairmont Park in Salt Lake City to start planning the event, which was first celebrated in Utah in 2011.

“She is our mother,” said Lupita Herrera, a member of the ‘Legionarias de Maria’ and parishioner of Saint Francis Xavier Catholic Church.

Herrera said that it doesn’t matter how the Virgin Mary is represented in the different countries “or even in the different cities of a country; Mary is the mother of us all.”

At the Intercultural Marian Celebration the rosary – which the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops describes as “an echo of the prayer of Mary, her perennial Magnificat for the work of the redemptive Incarnation which began in her virginal womb” – will be recited in different languages. 

Participants also will process through the grounds displaying their culture’s image of the Virgin and singing in their native languages.

Herrera, who is from Jalisco, Mexico, will bring an icon of la Virgen de la Purísma Concepción to the celebration. 

“It’s very important that anyone who can and wants to participate joins us in this celebration,” she said. “We can all show our love and devotion for our Mother. … It’s important that our children have our example.”

Also for the celebration, “children are welcome to dress in costumes of their native countries,” said Maria Cruz Gray, director of the Office of the Hispanic Ministry of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City, which is organizing the event in conjunction with Father Joseph Frez, pastor of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus Parish. 

Among  the people who will also participate in the celebration is Josefina Lugo, who recently moved to Utah from New York.

“I am from Argentina and didn’t know about this [celebration], but now I am excited and looking forward to participate in it,” she said.

All in the Catholic community are invited to the celebration, either to participate or view the various icons.

WHAT: Fourth annual intercultural 

Marian celebration

WHEN: Sunday, Sept. 28 

WHERE: St. Thomas More Catholic

Church, 3015 E. Creek Road, Sandy

For information, call the Hispanic Ministry Office, 801-328-8641.