Pope Leo XIV will preside on Sunday, November 8, in the Uruguayan city of Florida, at the Mass for the feast of Our Lady of the Thirty-Three, patroness of Uruguay, in the first stage of a trip that will later take him to Argentina and Peru, from November 6 to 17. This is detailed in the report by Inés San Martín for OSV News, which emphasizes that it is a small Marian image that the country’s secularization has never managed to detach from its national identity.
The contrast with the official calendar is notable. In Uruguay, OSV News recalls, Holy Week is officially called «Tourism Week,» Christmas is «Family Day,» and the feast of the Immaculate Conception, on December 8, became «Beach Day.» According to Latinobarómetro (2024), 52% of Uruguayans have no religious affiliation, the highest proportion among the 18 Latin American countries surveyed, and only 33% identify as Catholic.
An image linked to the birth of the nation
The Virgin of the Thirty-Three is a small cedar carving of the Immaculate Conception, probably from the Jesuit missions. Her devotion, explains Father Gabriel González Melano of the Diocese of Florida, did not arise from apparitions or miracles, but has a historical and patriotic character. Her name refers to the Thirty-Three Orientals, who in 1825 fought for independence against the Empire of Brazil, and the Assembly of Florida, which declared independence on August 25 of that year, met next to the church where the image was venerated.
Ecclesial recognition came in the 20th century. John XXIII authorized her canonical coronation in 1961 and proclaimed her patroness of Uruguay in 1962. For its part, the State declared both the cathedral and the image national historic monuments in 1975, and in 1994 the church became a National Shrine. The feast falls on a Sunday this year, the day when Catholics usually make the national pilgrimage to the shrine, a circumstance that, according to the report, sealed the choice of the location for the papal Mass.
Secularism and the precedent of John Paul II
González Melano places the origin of the current situation in the separation of Church and State, approved in 1917 and in force since 1919. According to the priest, state secularism eventually spread to society and relegated religion outside public life, though without persecution. Despite this, pilgrimages continue to bring together thousands of people.
It will not be the first time a Pope visits the shrine. John Paul II celebrated Mass there on May 8, 1988, ordained 13 priests, and consecrated the country to the Virgin; a year earlier, in 1987, the image had presided over a Mass in Montevideo attended by some 300,000 people. The same priest believes that a message about the transcendent meaning of life may be significant in a country with a high suicide rate, which OSV News puts at 21.35 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024, although he warns that it does not replace either professional care or public policies.
The visit has already led Cardinal Daniel Sturla to take measures in the Archdiocese of Montevideo, as InfoVaticana reported when suspending Masses during part of the weekend when the Pope will be in the country.