WASHINGTON (RNS) — It’s been 30 years since Jorge Garcia last joined the millions of people who have crowded the streets of Barquisimeto in northwest Venezuela for a procession with La Divina Pastora or “the Divine Shepherdess.”
But three decades and thousands of miles have not dimmed his devotion to the Marian image and statue credited with several miracles, including interceding to end a 19th-century cholera epidemic. This year, after months of work by the four members of the Washington-area Society of La Divina Pastora, she was honored for the first time with a Mass on Wednesday (Jan. 14) in Washington’s Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle and with a new statue shipped from Venezuela where it was created by a famous teenage artist.
The statue of La Divina Pastora arrived on Jan. 2, just hours before the U.S. military seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
“It’s not us. It’s God who moves everything,” Garcia said.
La Divina Pastora’s celebration came at a moment when Venezuelans in the diaspora and homeland are navigating uncertainty, big emotions and fervent prayers. Many Catholics agree the church will play a significant role in guiding Venezuela’s future — though they are not all in agreement of what’s needed. Many Venezuelan Catholics in the diaspora are hopeful Maduro’s capture and U.S. intervention signals an end to government corruption an …