Pope Francis to celebrate Mass in Paraguay’s holiest shrine

In this June 7, 2015 file photo, Mercedes Adad carries a replica of the Virgin of Caacupe as she and her son Oscar attend Mass on the feast day of Corpus Christi in Caacupe, Paraguay. AP

CAACUPE, Paraguay—Few countries are as devoutly Catholic as Paraguay, and no place in this South American nation means more to believers than the Shrine of the Virgin of Miracles in Caacupe, where Pope Francis is to celebrate Mass on Saturday.

Hundreds of thousands turn out each December to worship before the little wooden statue of the Virgin Mary, who wears a crown over her long hair, with a billowing white robe and a blue cloak.

“I’ve heard incredible and marvelous stories of people who believe they have experienced a miracle,” said Desire Cabrera, a reporter in this town with 48,000 residents about 55 kilometers east of Asuncion. “Some say they have been cured of a disease, or that miraculously they have found a job.”

Lore has it that statue of the Virgin was carved by a Guarani man named Jose, by many accounts an early convert to Christianity around the beginning of the 17th century.

Francis’ Jesuit order and their Franciscan brothers were both evangelizing the region and created settlements that gave local Indians unusual autonomy.

According to tradition, Jose was carrying a load of wood back to his settlement when he spotted a rival group that was fighting the incursion of Christianity and killing converts.

He hid behind a tree and prayed to the Virgin, promising to carve a statue of her out of it if he was not spotted.

His escape is considered the first of many miracles in what would become the religious center of this poor nation of 6.8 million sandwiched between Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil.

While Christianity is under siege by secularism and evangelicals in much of the hemisphere, Paraguay remains overwhelmingly Catholic. Eighty-nine percent here profess the faith, according to the Pew Research Center.

The country’s indigenous roots remain powerful as well. Even wealthy Paraguayans of European lineage take pride in speaking Guarani, and Francis is likely to emulate the example of Pope John Paul II, who used that language to greet the faithful in 1988.

“I was so moved when Pope John Paul II said in Guarani, ‘I love you all,”’ Jorgelina Rojas said. “Now when I see Francis I’ll be praying that he works a miracle so that my 14-year-old daughter, who was born deaf, can (learn to) speak.”