Major Catholic Celebration in Honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Slated for August in LA

Archdiocese of Los Angeles and Knights of Columbus announce performers and speakers for free event August 5 at L.A. Coliseum

LOS ANGELES, May 23, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Tens of thousands of Catholics will gather at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum this August in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The event, the "Guadalupe Celebration," will be held on Sunday, August 5, and is the most anticipated Catholic event of the summer.

Today, event cosponsors, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Knights of Columbus, announced the lineup of performers and speakers for the event. Artists include renowned Mexican singer and telenovela star, Pedro Fernandez, international singing sensation Filippa Giordano, and Eurovision Winner Dana Scallon.

Slated to speak at the event are Archbishop Jose Gomez of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, and Msgr. Eduardo Chavez, postulator for the Cause for Canonization of St. Juan Diego. Tickets for the free event can be obtained online at GuadalupeCelebration.com/tickets or by calling (323) 287-2007.

"At certain times, the Church gathers together for an event that provides the opportunity for the expression of faith in a very public way," said Archbishop Gomez. "In this celebration we will renew our devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe and our commitment to continue the process of evangelization that she began on this continent nearly 500 years ago."

Supreme Knight Carl Anderson added, "We strongly believe that Our Lady of Guadalupe has an important message to share with all of us and has an important role to play in unifying the faithful of this hemisphere. The Guadalupe Celebration will be an opportunity for us to bring Our Lady's message to a large audience joined together in prayer and celebrating the great gift she has given this hemisphere."

In 2009, Anderson co-authored the New York Times bestseller Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of the Civilization of Love with Msgr. Chavez.

Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to St. Juan Diego — a Native American living in Mexico — in 1531. She left her image miraculously on his cloak, or tilma. Today, the tilma is enshrined in Mexico City's basilica, which stands on the site of the Blessed Mother's apparition. It is the most visited shrine in the Western Hemisphere.

Los Angeles' Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels is home to the only relic of St. Juan Diego's tilma in the United States. The archdiocese has also been home to several large-scale Marian events in the past, including 2007's Rosary Bowl in Pasadena, which drew more than 40,000 attendees, and the annual Archdiocesan Procession and Mass in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe in East Los Angeles, which typically draws 25,000 attendees.

The Knights of Columbus' devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe reached a milestone with the chartering of their first Mexican council as the "Guadalupe Council" in Mexico City in 1905. Since then, the Knights have done much to spread Our Lady's message, including cosponsoring a U.S. tour of the archdiocese's tilma relic in 2003. The Knights also held their first-ever International Marian Congress in 2009, which concluded with the 22,000-person Guadalupe Festival in Phoenix, Ariz.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is the largest Catholic archdiocese in the United States with more than 5 million Catholics. The diocese was established in 1840, and was elevated to an archdiocese in 1936. Archbishop Gomez is the fifth archbishop of Los Angeles. There are a total of 287 parishes located in 120 cities within its boundaries.

The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic fraternal organization. Last year, Knights donated nearly $155 million and more than 70 million hours of service to charitable causes around the world. Founded in 1882 by Venerable Father Michael McGivney in New Haven, Conn., the Knights of Columbus has grown to over 1.8 million members and 14,000 councils in more than a dozen countries worldwide.

More information on the event may be found at GuadalupeCelebration.com.

SOURCE Knights of Columbus