Crowd Gathered for Mass Hopes to See Holy Image on Tree

More than 200 people turned out Tuesday night for a Mass celebrated by a Catholic priest before a tree in North Hollywood, which for 10 nights has drawn growing crowds of worshipers who say they can see the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe on the tree’s trunk.

The image in the back yard of a house on Valerio Street appears to weep when the crowd prays, moistening the tree bark, worshipers said.

A Mass was said before the tree Tuesday night by Father Barry Verdi, pastor of Holy Family Mission in North Hollywood.

“Everybody hopes to get some sign that God is going to be here to help,” Verdi said after the Mass. He called the sightings a sign similar to those in the Bible, such as the rainbow that appeared after the flood in the story of Noah’s ark.

“This neighborhood is a really poor, suppressed area,” Verdi said. “There’s gang violence, there’s drugs” and the apparition is a “sign . . . that there needs to be some help given to free the people,” he said.

Father Gregory Coiro, a spokesman for the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, said he was unaware of the sightings or the plans for the Mass, but said: “Ordinarily these things will have some sort of a natural explanation.

“The church will always look for a natural explanation before we make a leap of faith that there’s something supernatural occurring,” he said.

People sometimes “want to believe in something supernatural so badly that when the opportunity presents itself, they grab it,” he said, comparing the North Hollywood reports to a person looking at clouds and seeing what appears to be horses running or a man’s face.

Worshipers stood on chairs and benches to get a better view of the tree behind a blue and white house, and others looked over a fence from an adjacent yard as Verdi said Mass on Tuesday night. The 900 block of Valerio Street was lined with cars and the crowd spilled into the street.

The crowd prayed and sang Spanish hymns of praise to the virgin. A table placed next to the tree was covered with candles, flowers and images of the virgin.

Hilma Gonzales, who owns and lives in the house, called the image “a miracle. I feel a strong happiness in my heart.”

The image was first reported by Jesus Angulo, who lives next door. He said Tuesday that he first saw the image at 7:30 a.m. on March 14 as he glanced into the adjoining yard while sipping coffee.

“It just felt too wonderful to explain in words,” Angulo said. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.

“I feel that Our Lady is trying to bring peace to our area because there’s a lot of gang violence. She’s giving the youth a message to straighten themselves out.”

Angulo said he photographed the image and showed the pictures to friends and relatives. He said the story was spread by word of mouth, by Verdi and by a Spanish language television station. Since that Saturday, people from throughout the San Fernando Valley have been making nightly and daily visits to the tree, reciting the rosary, he said.

“I thought a lot of people weren’t going to believe it,” said Maribel Enriquez, Angulo’s niece. “But they just look at it and they automatically know what it is.”

Carmen Barrientos, who lives behind the house, said she saw the image after her 10-year-old granddaughter, Priscilla Otto, wandered into the yard to find a ball. “When she went to pick up the ball, she saw the image on the tree,” Barrientos said.

“She came running into the house and yelled, ‘Grandma, there’s an image of Our Lady on the tree! Come and see it quick before it disappears.’ ”

On the trunk of the tree was an image of the virgin, dressed in red, white and green--the colors of the Mexican flag--and wearing a crown, Barrientos said. “It was something really amazing. We felt something wonderful inside us when we saw it. We all started praying and it started weeping,” she said, referring to moisture that observers say dampens the tree bark.

Many of those who have visited the house are members of Holy Family Mission, a 1,000-family church where Verdi is pastor.

That the image was first sighted on a Saturday is significant, Verdi said, because the Virgin of Guadalupe first appeared to a Mexican Indian peasant, Juan Diego, on a Saturday in 1531.

Diego took roses to a Spanish bishop, which he said he had wrapped in his home-spun serape at the virgin’s request. The image of the virgin was discovered imprinted on the cloak, which is honored to this day in a basilica built to house it near Mexico City.

Historically, sightings of Our Lady of Guadalupe have always been interpreted as a sign to “the little people. . . .That God is concerned about you and God is taking notice of your situation,” Coiro said.

“I think that the same type of interpretation could be applied to a current situation where people feel they are the little people in society,” he said.