DANBURY—On a winter day in 1531, the Blessed Virgin appeared to a Mexican peasant named Juan Diego with a simple request—to build her a little house, a chapel on Tepeyac hill.
“I want to have a church built in this place where your people will know my compassion,” she said. “All those who sincerely ask my help in their work and in their sorrows will know their Mother’s heart…”
Today, the Basilica of Guadalupe stands at the place where she appeared to St. Juan Diego and millions of pilgrims visit it each year.
When Father Augustine Nguyen was first assigned as chaplain of the Newman Center at Western Connecticut State University in November 2019, students came to him with a simple request for which they had been praying to Our Lady of Guadalupe…to build a larger chapel so they could celebrate Mass and have Eucharistic adoration.
Our Lady had asked Juan Diego to build her a chapel, and the students asked Our Lady to build them a chapel. Today, the students who are members of the Newman Club, have a place for Mass and adoration…and an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe hangs in her honor there.
Henry Aquino, whose family is from Mexico, has a devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. He is the Campus Minister at the Newman Center, and he believes the Blessed Mother answers prayers.
“It is something we had been praying for,” he recalled, “and when Father Augustine came, we dropped the idea on him and said we needed to have a bigger space for students to come to Mass and not be squished in one small room on the second floor. It was so crowded that some students used to stand outside during Mass.”
To have Sunday Mass, the members of the Newman Club had to transform the living room downstairs into a sacred space each week.
The Newman Center is a Catholic campus ministry supported through the Annual Catholic Appeal of the Diocese of Bridgeport. Founded on Gospel values, the community lives its mission through prayer, study, socialization and outreach to the poor. They do all this in the spirit of St. John Henry Newman, who understood the importance of the university in the development of students.
Steffany Gomes, a member of the Newman Club who graduated in 2020, said: “We had this dream of expanding the chapel, and then when we went on retreat and saw an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I wondered if she was directing us to move forward and helping us to bring the plan to fruition.
Steffany saw it as an affirmation that Our Lady of Guadalupe was blessing their plans.
“She was pressing on our hearts because she wanted to have us expand the chapel as she did with Juan Diego,” she said. “I believe she was interceding for us and moving us forward to build it.”
Recalling when the students first approached him with their plan, Father said, “I was here two weeks when they came to me with the idea, and I thought, ‘You must be crazy. I don’t think the bishop will ever give me permission to knock down walls…but they prayed to Our Lady of Guadalupe for a new chapel, and here we are now.”
Father told students that if the need were there, they would expand the chapel, and shortly after he began his new assignment, he realized it was too small for the number of students who wanted to worship there.
The expansion required them to knock down a wall and utilize space that had previously been two bedrooms.
“I got some friends of mine who are in construction to knock down the walls, repaint and provide new carpeting and chairs,” Father said. “Now, we can fit over 40 people in the chapel.”
And attendance has increased. Previously, they could accommodate only four or five for weekend Mass, but now the numbers have more than tripled.
Father Augustine was also able to get statues and sacred art from the diocese to adorn the walls.
“This is so important,” said Father, who previously served as chaplain at Kolbe Cathedral High School. “A lot of students are turning away from the faith so to have this house with the chapel offers a friendly environment away from home for the kids to attend Mass, have activities and pray the rosary. We invite them to come back—especially students who might feel uncomfortable going to confession and Mass at their parish.”
