La Última Palabra

“The Successor of Peter cannot let this event pass without making present the joy of the church for the manifold gifts that God in his infinite goodness has poured out over these years on this beloved continent, which so deeply invokes Mary Most Holy.

The venerable image of the Morenita de Tepeyac -- her sweet, serene face impressed on the tilma of the Indian St Juan Diego -- presents herself as 'the ever Virgin Mary, Mother of the true God for whom we live.' She evokes the 'woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and a crown of twelve stars on her head, who was with child' and sounds forth the presence of the Savior to her own. She always leads us to her divine Son, who reveals himself as the foundation of the dignity of every human being, as a love stronger than the powers of evil and death, and as a fount of joy, childlike trust, consolation and hope.”

--Pope Benedict XVI
Homily at Mass for Latin America
on the Solemnity of Our Lady of Guadalupe
St Peter's Basilica
12 December 2011

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And there, from a historic celebration at what's now Christendom's second most-visited shrine, the last word on a feast that only gets bigger all over with each passing year.

As widely expected in the run-up to today's fiesta Guadalupana en Vaticano (video), the Pope personally announced his plans for a Latin American visit in the spring.

While B16 didn't cite specific dates, numerous reports have tipped the trip to Cuba and Mexico as most likely to take place in the last week of March.

PHOTO: Getty

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