The day my wife asked me to take her to the Shrine…

Taxi drivers of the MTA – blessings, rosaries, Pilgrim MTA’s and a miracle

Asado – encuentro familiar de los taxistas con sus familias Asado  - a family encounter of the taxi drivers and their families Asado – ein Familientreffen der Taxifahrer mit ihren Familien
La MTA siempre presente The Blessed Mother is always present Die MTA ist immer dabei
Reina un clima alegre A joyful atmosphere Die frohe Atmosphäre tut allen gut
También el taxista recibe la bendición Also the taxi driver receives a blessing Auch der Taxifahrer selbst erhält den Segen
La patrona de los taxistas catolicos de Buenos Aires The patrones of the catholic taxi drivers of Buenos Aires Die Patronin der katholischen Taxifahrer von Buenos Aires ist da Fotos © Manuel Diaz 2008

ARGENTINA, Manuel Díaz / mkf. If you take a taxi in Buenos Aires, you might just happen to meet Jesus and the Mother Thrice Admirable of Schoenstatt during your ride. She is the patroness of the Catholic Taxi Missio - this was proclaimed some years ago by Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio — and there are several missionary cabdrivers who carry the Pilgrim MTA with them in their taxis. On Thursdays, those who are able are found in the Schoenstatt Shrine of the Belgrano neighborhood in Buenos Aires saying the rosary for the intentions of their passengers who traveled in the company of the Great Missionary…

A friend of taxi missionary Manuel Díaz, Omar Galíndez (whose brother was world champion boxer, Victor Galíndez) considered himself somewhat of a Catholic but didn’t go to church even during Holy Week…which says a great deal in these latitudes. Although Manuel often invited him to the Shrine, he always had an excuse: not enough time, too much work, – including Sundays – for covering his debts. That is until his wife asked him to take her to the MTA’s Shrine in the Belgrano neighborhood.

Manuel relates: "God wanted it to be Thursday, and oh, what a surprise! Omar met Javier, Pablito, and other guys (faithful fellow workers who always attend the rosary) praying the Holy Rosary. His wife joined them in prayer. That night when we met, (the two of us work at the taxi stand at the Metropolitan Airport) Omar told me his wife was very moved and happy by the experience. I thought; She works miracles: from that moment on Omar carried Her image in his cab. After some time, we were talking about Jesus and Mary and how good it is to have them. Today he mentioned how he works more often and works much better. The day of the barbeque, December 22^nd, he chatted with Father Pepe about making his First Communion together with one of his children. This gave us enormous happiness and it cheered us up to keep working."

The missionary cabdrivers keep on working at all the Catholic Mission Cabdrivers events: pilgrimages, the rosary, the blessing of taxis, and much more.

Pilgrimage at New Schoenstatt

In October, with great Marian fervor, the 9^th Pilgrimage of cabdrivers to the National Schoenstatt Shrine in New Schoenstatt, Florencio Varela took place with the motto: We trust in Mary’s love. After taking part in the Holy Mass at the church of God the Father, they visited the Shrine along with friends who were making the pilgrimage for the first time. The poster with the invitation to the pilgrimage was given out at the Buenos Aires gas stations where the cabdrivers frequently fill up their taxis with compressed natural gas.

At the closing events of 2007, as they shared a barbeque with the mission chaplain, Father Pepe Casadevall, they went over all that had happened during the year. Before Christmas on December 22^nd in the parish, Lady of Lareto, there was the customary blessing of the taxis. Father Pepe blessed 300 cars, 8 taxis, and a person too. The past days something beautiful happened: a cabdriver told of how after the blessing there was a change in his car and it had stopped having problems. He went to the blessing with the hope that the blessing helped make it new like Jesus said in the gospel, "Behold, I make all things new." [Rev. 21:5] This man who in his childlike rudimentary faith expected something like a new baptism received instead through the holy water sprayed over his car hope of new graces … And with this blessing, it seems, he indeed can be certain of a changed life.

• Misión Taxistas Católicos manueleduardo.diaz@gmail.com
• Some cell phone numbers to call a missionary taxi driver in Buenos Aires:
  Cliver: (011)15 68 76 51 77
  Javier (011) 15 51 78 71 34
  Nora (011) 15 60 53 40 86

Translation: Celina Garza, Harlingen, TX, USA/amj