This Headline Is More Proof of How the Media Doesn't Get the Catholic Church

& it plays into anti-Catholic bias of some fundamential Christians as well.

This was the headline in a story of how Cuban Catholics celebrated a Mass at Havana Bay with Cardinal Jaime Ortega to mark the end of a 16-month island tour of the statue of La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre (Our Lady of Charity of Cobre), Cuba's patron saint.

Cuba Catholics worship patron saint in seaside mass

The article itself was fairly accurate. But how many people who already think Catholics worship Mary will see the headline as confirmation that we do put Mary up above Jesus & worship her as a goddess????

La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre

For those who are unfamiliar with the story attached to the statue we have to go back to arround 1608 AD. One day 2 brothers, Rodrigo & Juan de Hoyos, along with a 10-year-old slave boy named Juan Moreno, left Santiago del Prado (modern El Cobre, named after the copper mines), Cuba in search of salt to preserve meat for the copper miners of  Barajagua . They were half way accross the Bay of Nipe when a storm arose.  The tiny boat was tossed violently on the waves. They began praying to Mary for her protection.

At once, the skies cleared, & the storm was gone. They saw a strange object floating in the water at a distance. They rowed towards it as the waves brought it towards them. As thery got closer, hey saw that it was a statue of the Virgin Mary holding the child Jesus on her right arm & holding a gold cross in her left hand. The statue was fastened to a board with an inscription saying "Yo Soy la Virgen de la Caridad" ("I am the Virgin of Charity"). Much to their surprise, the statue remained completely dry while afloat in the water.

They returned to Barajagua. A small chapel was built there to honor her. However, the statue kept disappearing & reappearing. It was determined that the statue was supposed to be kept at El Cobre. However, the statue kept disappearing there as well. 1 day, a young girl named Apolonia was playing outside, pursuing butterflies & picking flowers. She headed towards the mountains of the Sierra Maestra. There she came across the statue on top of a small hill. Eventually, the Virgin was taken to the spot of her discovery, where a church was erected for her. 

Many feel that it was no accident, that the Virgin purposely chose to have her sanctuary in El Cobre because it is located in Oriente; the natural beauty there is the most stunning in Cuba, with its mountains, beaches, rivers, & thick forests. Additionally, it was in Oriente that the first settlement in Cuba was made, Baracoa; it was in Oriente where the slaves were set free for the first time in 1868; it was in Oriente where Cubans first began to revolt against the Spaniards.

At the request of the veterans of the War of Independence, Our Lady of Charity was declared the patroness of Cuba by Pope Benedict XV in 1916 The statue was solemnly crowned in the Eucharistic Congress held in Santiago de Cuba in 1936. Pope Paul VI raised her sanctuary to the category of Basilica in 1977.