Catholic Latino Leader Warns About Violence : Religion: Msgr. Jaime Soto strikes a somber note amid the festivities honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Even as hundreds of Catholics gathered in an air of festivity to honor the patron saint of Mexico, the Orange County diocese’s top Latino leader warned parishioners Sunday that a rising tide of violence and hatred are threatening “the soul of our people.”

“We are profoundly hurt by the vicious cycles of violence that rob our communities of our young people and our hope,” Msgr. Jaime Soto, Hispanic vicar of the Catholic Diocese of Orange, told more than 800 people who packed the historic Mission San Juan Capistrano for a Sunday Mass in an annual tribute to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Soto’s comments on violence, drugs and immigrant-bashing struck a somber note in an otherwise festive day of bright costumes, dancing and lively mariachi music at the mission.

One of the most important celebrations of the year for those of Mexican descent, the day marked a tribute to Our Lady of Guadalupe, revered in Latin American culture as the protector of the downtrodden and the oppressed.

Latinos from around the area gathered in downtown Santa Ana at a countywide festival for Our Lady of Guadalupe on Dec. 5--a week before the official observance--while many of Orange County’s more than half a million Latinos observed the event Sunday at their local parishes.

With leaders from the county diocese in attendance, San Juan Capistrano was a focal point of the observance Sunday.

As the mission bells echoed in the background, more than 50 children--a few not much taller than the long-stemmed roses they held--lined up for a 1 p.m. procession in the streets around the church.

“There’s so much excitement because you can just see the culture,” said Margarita Rivera, 34, a San Juan Capistrano resident who helped the children get ready for the procession.

The children donned colorful ponchos, sombreros, bandannas and other traditional Mexican garb, much of it handed down from families or bought especially for the occasion. Many of the little boys sported painted-on mustaches, while girls wore bright red lipstick.

Classmates Blanca Rivera, 12, and Angelica Garcia and Luz Maria Araiza, both 13, said they spent “hours and hours and hours” getting their costumes ready for the parade, an event they have taken part in annually since they were little girls.

The day is still a lot of fun, they said. But as Rivera fussed with her costume and waited to enter the church, she was quick to add: “It’s kind of embarrassing--your friends see you.”

Mariachi-band players followed the buzzing cluster of children as they marched into the church, and an hourlong Mass filled with songs and prayer then followed.

In the last few years, Orange County diocese leaders have held the Mass at different Latino churches in Santa Ana and Anaheim. Mission San Juan Capistrano was chosen this year, they said, both because of the site’s historic importance and its role in the lives of South County’s rapidly emerging Latino community.

Sunday’s Mass was held entirely in Spanish, as parishioners remembered the story of the Virgin Mary first appearing to Juan Diego, a 50-year-old Indian, on Dec. 9, 1531, on a hill in what is now Mexico City.

Tradition holds that she instructed him to contact the bishop and have a church built at the site. But the bishop doubted the story, so three days later the Virgin caused rosebushes to bloom and told Juan Diego to present them to the bishop as proof. When Juan Diego presented them as instructed, the roses fell out of his mantle, revealing a brightly colored image of a brown-skinned Virgin Mary. That cloth image is still revered today.

The Most Rev. Norman F. McFarland, bishop of the Orange County diocese, said in an interview after the Mass that while the day will always retain its special “Mexican flavor,” the diocese is hoping to expand the service in coming years to include English and Vietnamese.

Soto, however, focused many of his remarks at the Mass on the Latino community and the need to address problems that appear to have grown even more pressing in recent months.

Just one day after a U.S. Civil Rights Commission panel in Costa Mesa announced an investigation into alleged anti-Latino bias in local institutions, Soto decried those who “hate the immigrant” and “want to take away our dignity.”

And just two weeks after the county held an unprecedented summit on gangs in Santa Ana and elsewhere, Soto implored parishioners to help combat the violence in their communities before it consumes a generation of young people.

He attacked drugs and alcohol as well, calling them “the thieves that steal away the tranquillity of our homes and neighborhoods.”

Soto said in an interview that he wanted to use the miracle of Guadalupe to show local Latinos how important it is to hold onto their traditions and their faith.

“In these times when the Latino community is feeling so much tension and stress to survive here,” he said, “it’s important to draw near to her.”