Celebrating the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pope Francis has described Mary as a strong woman who inspires believers to give "flesh to the Gospel" in societies often marked by distrust and blindness.
"To look at the Guadalupana is to remember that the presence of the Lord always passes through those who manage to make his word flesh, who seek to embody the life of God within themselves, becoming living signs of his mercy," Pope Francis said during an evening Mass marking the feast day.
The Mass began with a procession of the flags of the nations of South, Central and North America – a sign that Our Lady of Guadalupe is patroness of the Americas.
