Bearers of Our Lady of Charity

By Rocio Granados - La Voz Catolica

MIAMI | Upon hearing the story of a woman who prayed — successfully — that Our Lady of Charity would save her life, Izzy Rennella thought “how powerful Our Lady can be, that she can help someone change her life completely.”

Rennella heard that story Sept. 8, 2018, during the annual celebration of the feast of Our Lady of Charity in the Archdiocese of Miami. Rennella’s roots lie in Ecuador, and she realized she knew very little about Cuba’s patroness but was impressed by the number of people who gathered to celebrate her feast day.

Rennella also took part in the celebration. As a member of Encuentros Juveniles, an archdiocesan movement for young adults, she helped carry the large, wooden cross that begins the procession of banner-bearing movements and groups. She also accompanied the image of Our Lady of Charity, co-patroness of the Archdiocese of Miami, as it was carried throughout the arena where the celebration took place.

The participation of young people from Encuentros Juveniles in the annual celebration dates back to 2012, when the island marked the 400th anniversary of the finding of the image on a tempest-tossed bay off Cuba’s northern coast. Father Juan Rumín Domínguez, then rector of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity here, asked the young people to be the bearers of the image during the Mass. And they have been doing so ever since.

For years, members of the Archdiocesan Confraternity of Our Lady of Charity had taken responsibility for preserving the image and organizing all the activities surrounding the celebration.

The confraternity was created in 1968 by Miami Auxiliary Bishop Agustín Román, longtime rector of the shrine, “as a continuation of the Confraternity of Our Lady of Charity that had existed for several centuries in Cuba,” said Ondina Menocal, coordinator of Hispanic apostolic movements in the archdiocese.

Made up of members of the so-called “historic exile,” Cubans who left the island in the early 1960s and helped to establish the shrine in Miami, confraternity members also commit themselves to supporting the shrine and helping the Daughters of Charity who work there, welcoming the many pilgrims and visitors who come. In 2000, Miami’s then Archbishop John C. Favalora elevated the confraternity to an archconfraternity of service to the shrine.

Bishop Román referred to the confraternity as the “spiritual and material support of the shrine.” For decades, it has served as the temple’s heart, pulsating with recitations of the rosary, weekend picnics, ongoing catechesis, much faith and great participation by the people.

Father Fernando Hería, current rector of the shrine, noted that in the last few years both “the archconfraternity and the shrine have evolved and are in the process of changing.” The change is happening among all religious organizations as their members grow older.

Leaders are trying to attract young people to take on the challenge of carrying on the devotion and protecting the tradition. In December 2017, a young adult group was formed at the shrine, called Caridad Joven (Young Charity). It’s part of the archdiocese’s Pastoral Juvenil Hispana, composed of young people ages 18 and up, who are recently arrived not only from Cuba but from other Latin American countries, as well as those who have lived here awhile but feel more comfortable in Spanish.

“Our style is a little more Cuban, but a lot of people connect with that,” said Emilio Marbote, one of the Cuban-born leaders of Caridad Joven. The group also has members from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Colombia. They meet twice a week at the shrine to strengthen their faith and help with the sanctuary’s needs.

“It’s our future,” said Father Hería, adding that the shrine “has needs that can be better met this way.”

For their part, the young people of Encuentros Juveniles — a movement founded in 1973 for Spanish-speaking youths ages 16 to 23 — “took very much to heart” serving as guardians of the image of Our Lady of Charity, according to Fernando Gómez, past president of the archconfraternity.

As parents and adult advisors to Encuentros Juveniles, he said, “we try not only for our children, but for all these young people, to always keep this tradition in their hearts.”

“We were fortunate that Bishop Román came up with the happy idea of creating apostolic movements,” said Serafín Sarduy, now serving for a third, non-consecutive time as president of the guild.

“I’m no longer young,” he added, but his faith inspires and compels him to continue being of service. “I believe it would be very difficult to lose that. As long as I can, I will continue working for my faith, doing what I always did, and always with the same enthusiasm, despite my age.”