The Marian Evangelization Center of Guadalupe

FR_logo_Guadalupe The Marian Evangelization Center of Guadalupe: a place to transmit the faith in a modern, attractive and powerful way

  • “Our Lady of Guadalupe… Star of the first and the new evangelization of America. To her I entrust the pilgrim Church in Mexico and the American continent, and I fervently ask her to guide her children, so that they will enter the third millennium with faith and hope.” (Blessed John Paul II, in his homily of January 24, 1999.)

    20 million pilgrims are guided by this star each year to the place where the Virgin appeared to a poor Indian in 1531. The immense metropolis of Mexico City now sprawls over what used to be luxuriant hills.
  • In the midst of the city is the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, one of the largest Marian shrines in the world. Facing the Basilica is the Plaza Mariana, built by the businessman Carlos Slim’s Foundation Carso, a 68,000m2 (17 acres) real-estate site still in need of development.
  • This site was donated to the Church. The Archdiocese of Mexico City and the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe have commissioned the FEM & Aleteia to design and build a 5,000 m2 Marian Evangelization Center on the site, along with a roof garden conducive to quiet meditation.
  • The total budget for the construction of this center will be around 10M€, to be raised locally and through donations from the friends of Our Lady of Guadalupe worldwide. The completion date is projected for 2015, and after its inauguration 500,000 annual visitors are expected.
  • The Marian Evangelization Center of Guadalupe will house the multimedia visit produced for Nazareth, adapted to the Mexican context and culture.
  • A special show on the Virgin of Guadalupe and the history of Marian veneration in Mexico will be presented in a multi-purpose auditorium.
  • An Aleteia room will enable visitors to access many reference resources on religious, life and social issues. Thanks to the Aleteia website, the spiritual influence of the Center of Guadalupe will reach people everywhere, far beyond the borders of Mexico.
  • The panoramic view from the roof garden will allow visitors to “meditate on all these things in their hearts.”
  • Visitors can stop by the gift shop to purchase fine Mexican religious and cultural products, and the cafeteria to share a convivial moment around a good meal.
  • The FEM Aleteia Mexico received a mission from the local Church and the Shrine, along with this letter from the Cardinal: "Following our conversations during our trip to Nazareth, I wish to confirm to the FEM Mexico, supported by the Foundation for Evangelization through the Media and the Mary of Nazareth Association, that we are entrusting it with the mission to design and build, under the supervision and direction of Monsignor Enrique Glennie, Rector of the Basilica of Guadalupe, the multimedia Marian Evangelization Center, to be developed on the first floor of the Plazza Mariana and its patio. We have mutually agreed on the principal lines of this great project, which must highlight the wonders that Heaven permitted to take place in this blessed location of Guadalupe, to present the Virgin Mary in the history of Salvation, and help all people to discover the beauty, truth and depth of the Catholic faith, working from the existing model of the Mary of Nazareth International Center and the Aleteia Project.
  • We ask the Lord and his Blessed Mother, Holy Mary of Guadalupe, to assist and guide you through this important and beautiful mission, in the spirit of the recent Synod on the New Evangelization, which stressed the urgency of announcing the Gospel through modern multimedia tools and thus transmit the faith to the world through beauty, charity and truth. I entrust you to the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and assure you, Mr. President of FEM Mexico, of my best wishes, support and blessing." Norberto Cardinal Rivera Carrera, Archbishop of Mexico, Primate of Mexico. The official announcement took place on December 12, 2012, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
  • Guadalupe has everything to make this project a magnificent one: it is a truly unique place, entrusted with a mission to evangelize Mexico and the Americas. The need for a renewed catechesis integrating today's media technologies, especially to reach the youth, was declared a pastoral priority for the bishops of South America by the previous popes at the conferences of Aparecida (2007) and Léon (2012). Our project is the perfect answer to those requests.
Guadalupe is a unique place for the New Evangelization, with a unique mission recognized by the Church and all the former popes, since Guadalupe and its miraculous image are important for Mexico City, all of Mexico, the entire American continent and the world.

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