Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien, spiritual leader of the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski, the vicar for Hispanics, and the Spanish-speaking priests of the archdiocese will celebrate a Mass for Our Lady of Guadalupe at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Baltimore Basilica.

Catholics believe Mary appeared to an Indian peasant, Juan Diego, in 1531 on a hill near what is now Mexico City. Images of Our Lady of Guadalupe our popular throughout Latin America.
A vehicle procession begins at 11 at Our Lady of Pompei Church, 229 S. Conkling St. and will follow the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe through the streets of Baltimore and ending at the Basilica. At 1 p.m., children carrying flowers and wearing traditional costumes that reflect the different countries and cultures represented in Baltimore’s Hispanic community will follow the image into the Basilica.

Five hundred years after a Spanish priest celebrated the first Catholic Mass in North America at St. Augustine, Fla., Latinos are expected to become a majority in the U.S. Catholic Church. Already more than 50 percent of Catholics under 25 are Hispanic, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. About 70 percent of the 47 million Latinos in the United States are Catholic.

Eighteen parishes in the Archdiocese of Baltimore offer Masses in Spanish.