Welcome to Aparecida

At the beginning of the Mass celebrated in the Basilica of Our Lady of Aparecida, the Holy Father was welcomed on behalf of the gathered community by the Archbishop of Aparecida, His Eminence, Raymondo Damasceno Assis.

Greeting of His Eminence, Raymondo Damasceno Assis

at the Basilica of Our Lady of Aparecida

Holy Father,

With great pleasure, I welcome Your Holiness to the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Conception Aparecida. Your pastoral visit to the shrine of the patron saint of Brazil is characterized as an act of devotion to Our Lady.

Your Holiness, the thousands of pilgrims who sojourn to this place are blessed by the miraculous image, found in the Paraiba River in 1717, and venerated ever since. Journeying to this place, they express their filial affection to the Virgin Mary, bringing their needs, anguishes and gratitude. But above all by coming here they are guided by hope, strengthened in faith and nourished in charity. When the Bishop of Rome also makes a pilgrimage to Our Lady, all of us feel confirmed in truth of faith by him who presides in charity over all the Churches, guiding all, with firm sweetness, in our paths of holiness (cf. Insediamento sulla Cathedra Romana, p. 7).

This Sanctuary is an important national religious icon. When you visit here we can say that, symbolically Your Holiness is visiting all of Brazil. It is a pilgrim visit, by which Your Holiness wishes to entrust to Our Lady the great event which will take place in these next days, which is the 28th World Youth Day. We all join in this prayer, that this meeting of youth with the Successor of Peter may strengthen the faith and love of our young people in Jesus Christ and raise in all of them the one missionary ardor which translates into the motto of these days: Go and make disciples among all nations (Mt 28.19).

This sanctuary celebrates today with immense jubilation the grace of having received three Popes. It was dedicated by Blessed Pope John Paul II on July 4, 1980, and welcomed Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, from May 12 to 13, 2007, on the occasion of the opening of the 5th General Conference of the Episcopate of Latin America and the Caribbean.

At beginning of the celebration of this Solemn Mass, on behalf of the devotees of Our Lady Aparecida, this Archdiocese and all of Brazil, we offer Your Holiness a replica Image of Our Lady Aparecida, carved in wood by an artist of this region. The black color of this image, Holy Father, according scholars, was caused, probably, by sludge from the river and the smoke from the candles. It has been interpreted as a reference to the sufferings of the poor and the excluded, especially African people, throughout the history of Brazil. In the face of the Immaculate Mother of Our Lord we see our need to constantly recommit ourselves to be a Church that is poor and for the poor, that evangelizes. Thus freed, we can serve the Lord and his Gospel.