In February of 2000 in Chicago, IL - the Pastor of the Parish of St. Stanislaus Kostka - Father Anthony Bus - was interested in building a perpetual adoration chapel dedicated to the Divine Mercy. He called Mr. Oscar Delgado his parishioner - who was very devoted to propagating the message and the devotion to the Divine Mercy - to help him in this project. Mr. Delgado had been involved in the establishment of a few adoration chapels and he agreed to meet to help to achieve this project. This Parish is located right next to the Kennedy Expressway in Chicago. Hundreds of thousands of cars pass by every day, right next to the Parish. Mr. Delgado looked and said to Father Anthony - “By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I would like to commission a very large statue of the Divine Mercy and put it next to the Parish - so that millions and millions of people will see the statue of the Divine Mercy.” So he called a famous Mexican sculptor - Gogy Farias - to make the statue of the Divine Mercy. It was made in Mexico City, Mexico in bronze - weighing 2 tons. It is 16 feet tall. He had the statue sent to Puebla, Mexico - so that it could be blessed on May 18th, 2000 in that city - because that was the site of the first foreign trip made by Pope John Paul II. It was blessed on May 18th - Pope John Paul’s birthday - by a special delegate from the Vatican. It was then transported to Chicago and it arrived on the feast of Corpus Christi in Chicago in June of 2000 - during the Great Jubilee Year. It travelled to different parishes around Chicago and Illinois for three years. However, for various reasons, the statue was not to be permanently placed in Chicago. On September 8th of 2003, Mr. Delgado gave the statue to our Blessed Mother - on her birthday and he put her in charge of where she wanted the statue of her Son to go. At this time - during the International Congress of the Marian Fathers on the Divine Mercy in Poland - two Fathers said that the best place for the statue would be in Kibeho in Rwanda - where they were founding a Marian Formation Center. They proposed putting the statue of Jesus on a hill - about a mile from the Shrine of Our Lady of Kibeho. They consulted with Mr. Delgado and after he prayed about it - he agreed to send the statue of Jesus to Rwanda - forever. It came to the country of a Thousand Hills in the month of August, 2004 and it was installed in Kibeho, on the hill of Nyarushishi - on November 13, 2004. The official enthronement was celebrated on December 8, 2004 - the closing of the Jubilee of the 150th Anniversary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. A few weeks prior to shipping that statue to Rawanda - Arlene Metcalfe - who was Head of the Worship Commission at St. Patrick Parish in Yorkville, IL at that time - made a phone call to the Chicago parish and was able to arrange for the statue to be brought to St. Patrick parish although public viewing had been stopped - where it sat on display outside the church for one week. The local newspaper - the Beacon News - promoted this event by stating on the front page of their newspaper - Divine Mercy Comes to Yorkville. That headline brought thousands of visitors to the parish for the week it was on display. The simple act - attracted much attention to the parish - as well as introducing Divine Mercy to thousands. St. Patrick Parish is staffed by the Marians of the Immaculate Conception - promoting the Divine Mercy devotions is one of their primary ministries.
Jesus I Trust In You
Deacon Dale
