The Canadian Catholic Aboriginal Council has released a prayer of thanksgiving for families to mark the 2016 National Day of Prayer in Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples. The Council and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops have promoted the annual National Day of Prayer since 2002. It is celebrated on December 12, the memorial of Our Lady of Guadalupe, whom Pope Pius XII proclaimed patroness of the Americas in 1946. The devotion dates to 1531 when the Blessed Mother appeared as an Aztec princess to a humble Indigenous peasant, Saint Juan Diego, at a place called the Hill of Tepeyac which eventually became part of Villa de Guadalupe, a suburb of Mexico City. Pope Francis will celebrate Mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica on December 12.