Attendance record broken at Basilica of Guadalupe on December 12, 2025. President of Mexico speaks with the Pope

(ZENIT News / Mexico City, 12.13.2025).- For two days in December, the hill of Tepeyac once again became the gravitational center of Mexico. Millions of pilgrims moved through the northern edge of Mexico City in an unbroken human current, converging on the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe to mark the anniversary of the Virgin’s final apparition to Juan Diego.

By the evening of December 12, local authorities confirmed a new attendance record. An estimated 12.8 million people visited the shrine between December 11 and 12, surpassing the previous high set in 2024 (12,5). The figure places the Basilica firmly among the most frequented religious sites in the world and underscores the enduring force of Guadalupan devotion in contemporary Mexican life.

The scale of the pilgrimage required an operation more akin to managing a megacity than a religious celebration. Municipal and city officials reported a largely incident-free outcome despite the unprecedented crowds. According to the mayor of the Gustavo A. Madero borough, where the Basilica is located, the celebrations concluded with what authorities described as a “clean slate”: no major disturbances and a security deployment that will remain active through the weekend as additional pilgrims continue to arrive.

Behind the record numbers lies a complex logistical effort. Medical teams provided thousands of treatments both inside and outside the sanctuary, ranging from dehydration to exhaustion. Dozens of missing-person reports were filed and resolved within hours. Law enforcement detained a small number of individuals for public order violations and theft, a marginal figure given the size of the gathering. Even the less visible consequences of the pilgrimage were addressed, including the rescue of dozens of abandoned dogs found along the routes taken by pilgrims, now awaiting reunification or adoption.

The physical trace of the celebration was equally striking. More than a thousand tons of solid waste were collected in the surrounding area, a reminder that the Guadalupe pilgrimage is not only a spiritual phenomenon but also an urban one, testing the capacity of public services year after year.

Beyond the numbers, church leaders have paid close attention to what pilgrims bring with them interiorly. Mexico’s bishops have noted that petitions to the Virgin increasingly reflect anxieties about violence and insecurity, a concern that cuts across regions and social classes. In that sense, the pilgrimage has become a kind of national barometer, registering fears and hopes that extend far beyond the religious sphere.

This year’s celebrations also carried a notable political and diplomatic dimension. On the morning of December 12, President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke by phone with Pope Leo XIV, renewing an invitation for him to visit Mexico. The timing was deliberate. In a public message following the call, the president emphasized that the Virgin of Guadalupe transcends confessional boundaries, describing her as a symbol of identity and peace for Mexicans regardless of personal belief or the country’s constitutional secularism.

The conversation followed months of formal gestures between Mexico and the Holy See. Sheinbaum publicly congratulated Cardinal Robert Prevost on his election as pope after the death of Francis, highlighting what she described as a shared humanist commitment to peace and global well-being. An official invitation to visit Mexico was later delivered to the pontiff through diplomatic channels during Vatican ceremonies marking Francis’s funeral.

Taken together, the events of December 12 offered a concentrated portrait of Guadalupe’s place in Mexico today. The devotion remains overwhelmingly popular and deeply personal, expressed through exhausting journeys on foot, prayer, and silent petitions. At the same time, it functions as a point of national convergence, where public authorities, church leaders, and political figures all operate within the same symbolic space.

As the Basilica’s doors closed on the evening of December 12 and reopened before dawn the following day, the flow of pilgrims resumed with little interruption. The record may eventually be broken again, but the deeper story endures: at Tepeyac, Mexico continues to articulate who it is, what it fears, and what it hopes for—one pilgrimage at a time.

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