Knights Of Columbus

Throughout the Western Hemisphere, Our Lady of Guadalupe is perhaps the most recognizable and most beloved Madonna. Scarcely a decade after the brutal conquest of Mexico, when hope for conversion and peace in Mexico seemed lost, the Virgin Mary appeared to an Indian convert, Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, speaking in his native Náhuatl language a message of love to “her dear son,” and leaving imprinted on his tilma or cloak her splendid image.

Nearly five centuries later, her message of love is given a new voice and new consideration. In Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of a Civilization of Love (Doubleday Religion, On sale 8/4/09, $22.99 or Pre-Order at the discount price $15.63, for delivery 8/4/09 ), New York Times best-selling author Carl Anderson and Msgr. Eduardo Chávez trace her history as a religious and cultural symbol from the sixteenth century to the present, exploring the Virgin’s message of love as an encouragement in the past and a guide in our present and future.

From analyzing the Náhuatl designs on her tunic to baring the impact her words during and after the apparition, the book explores how close Mary is – and the Virgin of Guadalupe in particular – is to the call to building a Civilization of Love. Through the writings of Pope Benedict XVI and John Paul II, Anderson and Chavez reveal how perfectly she appeared as a model of the love which is the foundation of our persons and a guide to the Love which is the foundation of Christianity itself, showing how the mother of the “God [who] is Love” can offer as great a hope now in our modern lives as she has for five centuries.

As Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, Carl A. Anderson is the CEO and chairman of the board of the world’s largest Catholic family fraternal service organization, which has more than 1.7 million members. Since Anderson assumed the responsibilities of Supreme Knight in 2000, the Knights of Columbus have achieved new heights in charitable giving, providing more than $139 million directly to charity and 64 million hours in voluntary service in 2008 alone. A member of the bar of the District of Columbia, he and his wife Dorian are the parents of five children. Msgr. Eduardo Chavez is one of the most renowned experts on the Guadalupe apparitions and the postulator of Saint Juan Diego’s cause for sainthood. He is the first dean of the Catholic University Lumen Gentium of the Archdiocese of Mexico, cofounder and dean of the Higher Institute of Guadalupan Studies, and honorary Canon of the Guadalupe Basilica.