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'We believe it's a miracle'
April 19, 2005
BY MAUREEN O'DONNELL Staff Reporter
The faithful believe it's a miracle. Skeptics say it's a salt stain.
A shape on an underpass wall of the Kennedy Expy. attracted hundreds
Monday who wanted to see for themselves if it really looked like Virgin
Mary.
The image drew Mexican immigrants who said it looked like Our Lady of
Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico. Polish immigrants thought it might
be connected with the death of the Polish-born Pope John Paul II who had a
special devotion to the Blessed Mother.
Police officers monitoring the scene, on Fullerton underneath the Kennedy,
were more jaded. "Does this mean the cardinal is coming back from the
conclave?'' asked one, who didn't want his name used.
The likeness appeared to be easier to discern through the lens of a
camera. Scores of people in the crowd used camera phones to take shots.
Language barriers melted as people studied each others' phones to see who
captured the best image.
Among the faithful was Paula Diaz, who pushed her 13-year-old son in a
wheelchair for six blocks to study the wall. Why had she come?
"Un Milagro'' -- a miracle, she answered, nodding to her son, Jose.
Muscular dystrophy robbed him of the ability to walk four years ago, said
Diaz, a native of Guerrero, Mexico, who lives in the 3000 block of North
Spaulding.
Diaz took Jose's hand, rubbed it on the image and then guided him in
making the sign of the cross.
"It's so my brother could walk,'' said Jose's brother, Juan Diaz.
Shrine at Fullerton and Kennedy
"We believe it's a miracle,'' said Elbia Tello, 42, of the 6000 block of
West Barry. "We have faith, and we can see her face.''
"And on the cell phone, you can even see it better,'' said the native of
Torreon, in Cohuila, Mexico.
"My pope, he loved Mary,'' said Tarnow, Poland's Barbara Zych, 38.
With the end of shifts at nearby factories, the crowd swelled. The dank
underpass, speckled with pigeon droppings, began to resemble a shrine,
with flowers, holy candles, and a large framed depiction of Pope John Paul
II being embraced by Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Some taped holy cards to the wall. Others wrote the names of dead loved
ones with the message "RIP.'' One card, with a picture of a little boy,
said he was a brain cancer sufferer from Gurnee.
Wearing trendy John Fluevog shoes, Vilija Boguta, 28, stood out from the
blue-collar crowd. Her family is Lithuanian, and she stopped to take some
digital shots for her mother in Northbrook.
"There's a lot of water stains that look very similar,'' Boguta said.
Regardless of their opinions, a sense of community emerged. No one
jostled. Everyone waited their turn for a photo, or to kneel and pray.
Police at the scene wondered if the Illinois Department of Transportation
was going to scrub the image down. "I could just see the riot,'' said a
state trooper who asked not to be identified.
But IDOT has no intention of removing it, said spokesman Matt Vanover.
Though officials believe it's salt run-off from the overpass above, "We're
going to treat it as if it's a roadside memorial.
"This is something that certainly has a lot of interest, and at this point
in time, as long as it is not a traffic or safety issue, we have no plans
to scrub it down."
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-virgin19.html
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