12,000 Expected at Catholic Rites

More than 12,000 Catholics from 100 mostly Latino parishes in the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese are expected to gather at East Los Angeles College stadium Sunday to celebrate the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patron saint of Mexico.

Six processions to the stadium, including one led by Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, will begin from various locations at noon, following two-mile routes to the college.

Mahony and his auxiliary bishops will depart from Our Lady of Solitude Church, at Brooklyn and Ford streets in East Los Angeles. They will be accompanied by floats, dancers and musical groups dressed in Mexican costumes. The cardinal will begin the liturgical celebration at 2 p.m. at the stadium, on Brooklyn Avenue west of Atlantic Boulevard.

The feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of the most popular and important celebrations of the year for people of Mexican descent. It commemorates the day in 1531 when Mary, the mother of Jesus, was said to have appeared to Juan Diego with a request that a shrine be built in her honor in what is now Mexico City.

Here is a list of the starting points and times for the six processions:

* Our Lady of Lourdes Church, 3772 East 3rd St., noon.

* St. Lucy’s Church, 1419 N. Hazard Ave., noon.

* St. Alphonsus Church, 532 S. Atlantic Blvd., 12:30 p.m.

* Our Lady of Miraculous Medal Church, 820 N. Garfield Ave., Montebello, 12:30 p.m.

* Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, Hammel, 4018 Hammel St., noon.

* Our Lady of the Rosary of Talpa, 2914 East 4th St., noon. (This procession will be for teen-agers and young adults.)