What Juan Diego Saw

ON July 31, Pope John Paul II appeared before more than a million cheering, weeping Catholics in Mexico City, and declared a 16th-century Indian named Juan Diego, believed to be part of one of the most famous miracles in Christian history, a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. There are those within the Church, though, who believe the Holy Father has bequeathed to the Church a holy ghost.

That is, they claim there is no solid reason to believe that the Indian shepherd to whom the beloved Virgin of Guadalupe is said to have appeared in 1531 existed at all. It’s not just the usual suspects making these claims, but also Catholic priests who once served at Mexico City’s basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe—including its longtime abbot. In December 1999, a Mexican newspaper made public a letter the clerics had written to John Paul, asking him to delay Juan Diego’s canonization until more evidence could be marshaled.

RD

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Rod Dreher

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ON July 31, Pope John Paul II appeared before more than a million cheering, weeping Catholics in Mexico City, and declared a 16th-century Indian named Juan Diego, believed to be part of one of the most famous miracles in Christian history, a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. There are those within the Church, though, who believe the Holy Father has bequeathed to the Church a holy ghost.

That is, they claim there is no solid reason to believe that the Indian shepherd to whom the beloved Virgin of Guadalupe is said to have appeared in 1531 existed at all. It’s not just the usual suspects making these claims, but also Catholic priests who once served at Mexico City’s basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe—including its longtime abbot. In December 1999, a Mexican newspaper made public a letter the clerics had written to John Paul, asking him to delay Juan Diego’s canonization until more evidence could be marshaled.