Renata Steffens
The American non-profit Guadalupe Missions has brought the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe to Ireland and NI on a week-long trip. The Irish Catholic spoke with founder and director Scott Watts after a live podcast recording with MamCast, the Catholic Mothers Ireland podcast, in Baggot Street.
Mr Watts travels with Fr Brett Jamrog and a poster of Our Lady of Guadalupe, visiting parishes, schools, and Catholic groups, giving talks about the apparition story, miracles and technical details of the image.
During this trip, Mr Scott noticed an increase in interest among younger people. “We visited Holy Family Mission, Waterford”, and the present were “20-something, and they’re on fire.” He said the interest grows among young adults through videos on TikTok, and these youth groups reach out asking for a visit.
The plan was to stay in the south of Ireland, around the counties of Waterford, Limerick, and Cork, he explained, but they found themselves travelling to Belfast. “I really hadn’t planned on going up there, but Father [Jamrog] really felt this draw on this trip.” Attending Mass at St Mary’s, they spoke with the priest and explained their mission.
“We did a couple of TikToks and videos and all of a sudden we had quite a large number of people that came, and we recorded there and shared a little bit about what we were doing in Ireland and also talked about some of the miracles of Our Lady as people kind of came up one at a time.”
Mr Watts said the trip was “a weird, disorganised mess” but they ended up where they had to be, guided by the Holy Spirit. “There’s been at least a couple of days that Father [Jamrog] and I haven’t even had enough time to stop and get a meal.” He said people would hear about the mission and, by word of mouth, come to see and pray to the image and ask questions, “and all of a sudden we’re there for two, three hours.”
Those interested in booking a free visit can schedule it at guadalupemissions.org.
You can listen to the MamCast episode with Scott Watts on the Catholic Mothers Ireland YouTube channel.