SAN JUAN – It’s been three years in the making. A new welcome center has opened at the Catholic Basilica in San Juan.

To welcome everyone is a 10-foot bronze statue of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle.

In March 2017, Father Amador Garza, the basilica’s rector, told CHANNEL 5 NEWS about the statue that now stands on an elevated mound.

The special day of the statue’s arrival came in early June 2017.

There was a special mass by Bishop Daniel Flores at the basilica the day the sculpture was lowered into place.

A procession to the site of the new welcome center was followed after mass. Many in attendance were in anticipation of the blessing.

For most, it was their first view of the center, which is located next to the expressway service road.

“The devotion that has passed through, decades and decades, really started with the faith and manifestation. And faith of the poor, who really says if the world doesn’t hear them, La Virgen si,” said Flores during the special service, reminding all of how all this came into being.

Garza expressed his appreciation for those that helped build the center, “I would see the boys working here, Saturday and Sunday, all hours. Laying the travertine, laying the granite, laying the bricks here. The pavers in the plaza. And I was just so grateful to God that they worked so hard, so we could get to this day.”

The center will have areas where people can sit, meditate or pray.

It will be the La Virgen who will greet the community when they first arrive at the welcome center at the Basilica in San Juan.

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