Our Lady of Hastings Street?

Can the Catholic faith be expressed as part of a commercial venture? If the answer is no, then the New Orleans Saints in football, the California Angels in baseball, and a particular taqueria in downtown Vancouver may have to rethink their monickers.

A Catholic mother of Latin American heritage wrote to us, upset that a Mexican restaurant on West Hastings is using an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe as its logo. Not only is the image on the storefront, but also on the restaurant's printed materials.

The woman writes: "Can our Catholic leaders in B.C do something about this?

For us, Our Lady is a precious treasure, our faith, our everyday light, not to be considered a logo to sell food. We venerate the Virgin, we don't commercialize her."

While I didn't find the image offensive, I did wonder where you draw the line between personal devotion and sacrilege. I asked Msgr. Pedro Lopez-Gallo. Not only is he a canon lawyer, but his Mexican background gives him an understanding of Latin American sentiments when it comes to this topic.

Msgr. Lopez Gallo: "It is extremely difficult to qualify the popular devotion that sometimes falls into very superstitious worship. Yes, many Mexicans (and Latinos), especially uneducated Catholics, long to put images of Our Lady of Guadalupe everywhere to beg her protection. In their candor they do not have the discretion to limit their devotion and avoid usage under trivial circumstances.

Conscious of these religious feelings, business people commercialize religious icons (e.g., Sacred Heart, symbols of the Eucharist and, of course, images of Mary) for the selling of their products to their target market.

For me, this exploitation of religious images may be blamed more on the commercial agents than on the faithful. The reservation of your correspondent shows how hesitant she is to publicize her criticism.

This is extremely common in Mexico and in many Third World countries. The poorer (and more economically desperate) the people, the more they tend to concretize their devotion in pious objects. I don't think we can do anything to remedy the regrets of your reader.