Newly-installed Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich early Friday morning appealed to thousands of worshippers honoring Mexico's Our Lady of Guadalupe in one of his first suburban visits as the archdiocese leader.
"¡Yo soy guadalupano!" and "¡Viva México!" Cupich exclaimed in Spanish, stirring the crowd in northwest suburban Des Plaines.
Organizers of the 36-hour event expected an even larger crowd than usual with Cupich's visit, at about 120,000 pilgrims. Cupich just became the leader of Chicago's Catholics last month.
The annual event on the campus of Maryville Academy celebrates the virgin who's said to have appeared to a peasant in 1531. The Des Plaines shrine is the only official place of its kind outside of Mexico City.
Cupich’s presence acknowledges the growing number of Hispanic Catholics in the Chicago Archdiocese.
"It’s an important event for all of us and having a really important person here for an important event is great, it’s amazing," said attendee Mauricio Orozco.
Cupich, in his very short time in Chicago, is already being mentioned as possibly being fast-tracked to become a cardinal, but he said it's "all speculation."
"There's a lot of work here," Cupich told reporters prior to his outdoor Mass. "The pope has a lot of things to do, and I have a lot of things to do here. So, no, I haven't [spoken with him], to be honest with you. No. Not at all."
The Vatican announced Thursday that Pope Francis will name a new group as soon as next month.
