Cristo Negro Warms Up Fair Haven

When the image of a black Christ filled St. Rose of Lima Church, New Haveners who originally hailed from Guatemala felt a bit more ​“a la casa” — as if at home.

Some 500 parishioners — many of them members of New Haven’s growing Guatemalan community — celebrated a mass and festival Sunday in honor of Cristo Negro at the church in Fair Haven.

Sunday’s service featured an image of Cristo Negro carried in by officiants, many not only bearing the statue but displaying Guatemalan blouses and scarves.

The original image of Cristo Negro, in the church in Esquipulas, Guatemala, is the second most venerated Catholic image, next to Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe in Mexico, and a major pilgrimage site for Central Americans, said St. Rose’s Father Jim Manship, who presided over the service.

The crucifix, surrounded by red and white carnations, was placed to the left of the altar as Father Manship officiated in Spanish. In the center, as part of the community’s offering in honor of Cristo Negro, were large baskets of maize and frijol, corn and beans, along with other agricultural products of the Esquipulas area.

“Que viva Cristo Negro!” Manship called out

“Que viva!” the congregation responded.

One strain of thought is that the colonial crucifix turned black overnight so indigenous people would feel closer to Jesus and more protected by him. In short, a miracle.

According to a more cautious strain of thought, the transformation occurred because the incense in the church and the aging over the centuries have combined to darken the wood of the cross.

That is, it’s not miracle.

Sunday’s service,conducted mostly in Spanish, was punctuated by portions, including the prayer of the faithful, in Akateco, one of several indigenous languages of Guatemala. A children’s choir, with some kids in native costume, singing Guatemalan songs, and a band, with guitars, tambourine, and prominent melodious trumpets accompanied the prayers.

They made the mass seem not only like a religious occasion, but also one offering the sites and sounds of home.

Manship said that Guatemalan families have been in New Haven for 40 years, but the community has been growing at a more rapid clip of late. This is the fourth year that the Guatemalans within St. Rose’s diverse Latino congregation have organized the service and the music and dance events that followed

Of the 1,300 people who come to weekly services, Bible study, and other events at St. Rose, 15 percent are Guatemalans, Manship estimated.

He said narco-violence in Guatemala has led more families to migrated from Central America.

He pointed to families in the congregation who have told him they feel more comfortable, under less pressure and feeling more dignified living in New Haven than they felt in other American cities.

He said one little boy of 7 in the congregation has clearly suffered from periods of malnutrition. Another Guatemalan congregant, a 16-year-old, told Manship of the many periods in his life when he was abused.

When Manship met him, the boy insisted on reciting the numbers in English up to 20, which he had learned in a refugee camp.

“All he wanted was to go to school. These people know hunger. They have siblings who have died because of no health care,” Manship said.

Manship said that Cristo Negro has become a particularly important symbol for migrants. It’s the ​“whole sense and feeling that God is accompanying them and protecting them,” he said.

There was special poignancy also to the service at a time when the national immigration issue remains so contentious and the Obama administrationconducted raids of undocumented immigrants.

“We don’t have anyone who fits the profile of what immigration is looking for [now]. But we’re together,” said Manship.

Manship said that most of the Guatemalans in the congregation hail from one of three towns: Esquipulas, Tacana in San Marcos province, and Huehuetenango.

As the image of Cristo Negro, surrounded by carnations, was transported from the sanctuary downstairs to St. Rose’s social hall, and the singing, dancing, and other cultural events around the statue were being organized, Jose Vasquez said that in Esquipulas the festival for Cristo Negro lasts not a single morning, but several days. It transforms the whole city.

The brothers were more than happy, however, to be part of New Haven’s more modest but important celebration.