Situated in the middle of a pine stand in the hills of the Mississippi Valley in Lacrosse, The Shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe, unlike the the other Marian Shrines of Wisconsin with their longer histories, was only just completed in 2008.
Initiated by Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, and designed by the renowned classical architect, Duncan Stroik, this Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in LaCrosse, Wisconsin was built to serve, “the spiritual needs of those who suffer poverty in body and soul… a place of ceaseless prayer for the welfare of God’s children, especially those in most need. The Shrine remains dedicated to the continuing work of evangelization, to bring people to Christ through Our Lady.”
The Marian emphasis of this Shrine, represented in the architecture and religious paintings of contemporary artists and craftsmen, represents anew – but with timeless beauty and forms of reverence – the yearnings and hopes of our times. Of particular relevance is the Memorial to the Unborn, on the grounds of the Shrine, which provides a place for pilgrims to bring to Our Lady of Guadalupe the intention of protection for all unborn life. In the words of Cardinal Burke:
“The Memorial to the Unborn eloquently expresses the message of Our Lady of Guadalupe: God’s all-merciful love toward all of His children from the moment of their conception. Even as God Himself chose to be conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, as the first moment of His greatest act of love of us, so He has taught us the inviolable dignity of all human life. Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of America and Star of the New Evangelization, is, in a particular way, the Mother of the Unborn.”
