Much as Juan Diego waited and waited to show Bishop Juan Zumárraga the sign he’d received from Mary in 1531, the people of Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission in Queen Creek, Ariz., waited 60 years for the bishop to make their spiritual home a parish.

The elevation was largely a matter of the congregation reaching critical mass. Over the past five years, nearby farmlands have been converted to housing developments. Many took advantage of the reasonable home prices southeast of Phoenix. The mission saw a corresponding boom in registrations. My husband and I, along with our five children, were part of that wave.

Upon our first visit, we noticed a worn, white building with dusty stained-glass windows resting in the desert sand. Realizing this was no longer a place of worship, we directed our eyes across the street. A beautiful tile-mosaic sign featuring Our Lady of Guadalupe guided us into a freshly paved parking lot.

We walked through a side door, the main entrance, welcomed by a statue of St. Jude. Turning left toward the altar, we quickly spotted the red sanctuary lamp: Jesus was there, reserved in the tabernacle. From the wall behind, a large crucifix invited us to contemplate the five wounds of Christ.

Thinking about how Jesus suffered brought to mind the priests who serve here. They must endure the sweltering summer heat in their vestments and without air conditioning.

Later we would learn that this mission started in the late 1940s with the help of a Father O’Hern from the nearby town of Gilbert. The predominately Hispanic-American community of families and farm laborers helped organize the first Catholic congregation. I remembered that Juan Diego also was a farmer.

His Dec. 9 feast day is followed three days later by the Dec. 12 feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

 In 1960, one Father Patterson of Chandler assisted in purchasing property, while Father O’Hern acquired a barracks building from the military base. The barracks was moved to

Ocotillo Road

and still stands today.

By 1975, the building was deemed unsafe and the insurance company refused to renew its policy. In 1988, land was purchased across the street to build the current 480-seat church.

Sheep Without a Shepherd

One by one, priests of the Phoenix Diocese came and went, helping the mission as they could but not able to call Our Lady of Guadalupe their own.

From 2000 to 2005, Father George Highberger assisted in completing the San Juan Diego Religious Education Building. Father Highberger taught the truths of the Church with a firm yet gentle spirit. I’ll never forget how he came immediately to the hospital to baptize my 1-month-old sick baby.

When Father Highberger left, Father Jorge Gonzalez of Argentina came for a year, bringing new enthusiasm. He meticulously cleaned the dust from inside the church. The Infant of Prague’s royal garments and Our Lady of Guadalupe’s Aztec robe were laundered while the statues were given a bath. The dust blown in by the desert is so fine that it cannot be seen — until it accumulates and someone goes to clean it off.

Speaking of cleaning, there’s a confessional to the left of the sanctuary. A half-hour before every Mass, the priest welcomes penitents who need to clear their souls of the “accumulated dust” of sin so they can receive Christ in Communion in a state of grace. Many parishioners take advantage of this convenient schedule.

Every Tuesday, Father Gonzalez exposed the Blessed Sacrament for Eucharistic adoration. English being his second language, he tended more to the Spanish-speaking population. Meanwhile Father Alvin Cayetano, a Filipino missionary priest with the diocese, ministered more to the “Anglo” community.

Every priest who served here brought a unique set of gifts and skills, but the people of Our Lady of Guadalupe sometimes felt like sheep without a permanent shepherd.

As the Spaniards and Aztecs remained apart until Mary left her likeness on St. Juan Diego’s tilma, so the Hispanics and Anglos needed a unifying force in Queen Creek.

Over the past five years, the church has seen registrations swell from 600 families to 2,000. Back in 2001, there was one Sunday Mass in English and one in Spanish. Today there are three of each.

One time our family could only attend a Spanish Mass. Although we could follow along in the missalette, I wished I could understand the language. Born and raised in the Midwest with a Polish-American heritage, I never had a reason to learn Spanish. Now, settled into the Southwest, I find myself admiring the people around me who are bilingual. Maybe I will put Spanish lessons on my to-do list, I thought during that Mass.

The idea took me back to the story of Juan Diego and how the Aztecs, Franciscan missionaries and conquistadores were separated by language, beliefs and values. Some Aztecs were glad to welcome the priests who taught about the one, true God with holy pictures and statues. Belief in their most powerful god, the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl, had prepared them to understand Christ. Of course, many Aztecs resisted the new religion, believing it would take away their power over other tribes.

The Franciscan friars were also hindered in their evangelistic efforts by the conquistadores. The latter claimed they wanted to help spread the saving and sanctifying message of Christianity — and perhaps some were sincere about that — but not a few simply wanted to conquer Mexico for the Spanish crown. These men tricked and killed the natives, making them untrustworthy of any foreigner. Their actions made it much harder to unite this community and bring Jesus to them.  

Soon after, Our Lady of Guadalupe would appear to humble Juan Diego and change everything for the land that would become Mexico and the American Southwest.

Many years later, on Aug. 22, 2006, Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmsted dedicated Our Lady of Guadalupe as a parish and installed Legionary Father Michael Shannon as its first pastor.

My children and I were fortunate to participate in the installation Mass, when a replica image of Our Lady of Guadalupe “appeared” on the vestments of both Bishop Olmsted and Father Shannon. We were blessed to receive Our Lord in the Eucharist from a bishop.

As Mary’s appearance to a poor field laborer transformed an entire region for Jesus, I knew in my heart that God will do great things for the people of Queen Creek now that its humble mission is now an official parish church.

Lynanne Lasota writes from

Queen Creek, Arizona.

Planning Your Visit

For a Mass schedule and other information, call the parish office at (480) 987-0315 or visit diocesephoenix.org.

Getting There

Our Lady of Guadalupe is located at

20615 East Ocotillo Road

in Queen Creek, Ariz. The old military barracks is on the north side and the church nestled off the road on the south side.