The Canadian Marian statue known as Our Lady of the Cape has arrived in Indiana ahead of the National Eucharistic Congress that is taking place in Indianapolis this week.
“The Procession concluded yesterday at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Fort Wayne -- a fitting place, given Our Lady of the Cape is fashioned after the miraculous medal first known as the medal of the Immaculate Conception,” said Dennis Girard, Director of the Marian Devotional Movement, which is coordinating the procession from Canada.
He noted that the bishops of the United States in 1846 named Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception as the nation’s patroness.
Girard and his wife, Angelina, have brought Canada's National Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of the Cape, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, from the national shrine in the Province of Quebec to the National Eucharistic Congress, in a procession that began July 4 at Cap-de-la-Madeleine on the bank of the St. Lawrence River.
Separately, the World Apostolate of Fatima, USA/Our Lady’s Blue Army has conducted a tour of the National Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Fatima to the Eucharistic Congress.
Both statues – accompanied by prayer petitions written down by the faithful along the way – will be placed prominently at the Congress, to be held in the Lucas Oil Stadium from July 17 to 21.
Walking together
Bishop Martin Laliberté of the Diocese of Trois-Rivières launched the Canadian Procession at Cap-de-la-Madeleine on July 4, American Independence Day.
“As we are journeying together, learning to be more and more a synodal Church, the collaboration between local Churches at different levels is a sign of the action of the Holy Spirit," Bishop Laliberté wrote to Eucharistic Congress organizers. “In this sense, the participation of some diocesan Churches of Canada in a procession of Our Lady of the Cape to your National Eucharistic Congress would be a sign of this walking together as a whole Church.”
The statue made stops in Ottawa; Toronto; London, Ontario, and Sarnia, Ontario.
An estimated 2,500 pilgrims attended events at St. Patrick's Basilica in Ottawa. Organizers called it “a fitting send-off for Canada's National Madonna from the Nation's Capital.”
During Mass at St. Patrick’s, Auxiliary Bishop Yvan Mathieu, a member of the Society of Mary (Marists), said in a homily, “We are encouraged by Our Lady of the Cape to not allow refusal of our mission to stop us, but on the contrary to continue to walk – to walk behind Christ, together with her, Mary, the Pilgrim Virgin of the Cape.”
God will make it possible
Bishop Mathieu reminded listeners that Catholics are called to be "missionary disciples," but acknowledged that obstacles exist. Recalling a miracle that occurred in 1879, when ice formed on the St. Lawrence River, allowing the builders of a new shrine church dedicated to Our Lady of the Cape to transport stones from the other side, the bishop said that God will make it possible for contemporary Catholics to “cross the river of indifference,” which is one of the main obstacles to evangelization.
At many of the stops, such as St. Ambrose Church in Cambridge, Ontario, Mass was followed by a formal consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary, veneration of the statue of Our Lady of the Cape, blessing of rose petals, and prayers for the graces of fallen-away family members and loved ones to return to the Eucharist. Attendees could remain in the church for an all-night vigil, concluding with morning Mass.
The statue crossed into the United States on July 12, then made stops in St. Joseph Chapel and Shrine of the Immaculate Heart in Pontiac, Michigan, and the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Franciscan Fr. Alex Kratz, Spiritual Director of Terra Sancta Ministries, which runs the Pontiac shrine, told a congregation there that Our Lady of the Cape wants to be at the Eucharistic Congress and “lead us to a deeper faith in Jesus, like the Apostles at Cana, the first public miracle of Jesus."
