The Mapuche
People Celebrate
Blessed Ceferino Namuncurá
(ANS - Namuncurá San Ignacio, Argentina – November 12, 2024) – The community of San Ignacio, a town in the Argentine province of Neuquen, organized a celebration on November 8-10 to commemorate the 17th anniversary of the beatification of Ceferino Namuncurá, son of the last Mapuche chieftain.
The event opened
with the arrival of the first gauchos on horseback; they were welcomed
with a Mass celebrated by Fr. Natalino Freitas. The next day, those present
went on pilgrimage to the cemetery where Rosario Burgos de Namuncurá,
Ceferino's mother, rests. At the altar in the cemetery, the tombs were blessed,
the deceased were prayed for, and flowers were offered in memory of each
Mapuche.
The pilgrims then
went to the “kultrum,” where the remains of the Blessed Mapuche rest. The
pilgrimage was followed by torches to the top of the Cerro Ceferino. There the
pilgrims prayed in front of a bust of the young Mapuche.
The event in honor
of Blessed Ceferino Namuncurá was also attended by numerous authorities,
including the mayor of Junin de los Andes, Luis Madueño; the mayor of Aluminé,
Diego Victoria; Deputy Gabriel Álamo; the minister of education and the governor
of Neuqeén, Soledad Martinez; and artist Alejandro Santana, author of the “kultrum”
and the “Via Christi,” in Junin de los Andes. Cirilo Namuncurá, president of
the Ceferinian Commission, addressed a formal greeting to the guests. Mass was
then celebrated by Fr. Antonio Sánchez Lara, SDB, pastor of Chimpay, Rio Negro
Province, the birthplace of Blessed Namuncurá, and concelebrated by Fr. Freitas
and Fr. Isidoro Adami, SDB.
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