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August 7, 2002
Pope canonizes Mexican visionary who fueled New World conversions
Canonization of Juan Diego draws thousands to basilica in Mexico City
By John Thavis
MEXICO CITY (CNS) — Paying tribute to Latin America's deepest popular devotion, Pope John Paul II canonized Juan Diego, the Mexican peasant whose visions of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the 1500s fueled conversions among the native peoples of the New World.
The pope, laboring through a lengthy Mass in Mexico City July 31, said he was proud to proclaim the first indigenous saint of the Americas, a "simple, humble Indian" who found faith by contemplating the face of Mary.
By accepting Christianity without giving up his Indian identity, the saint became a catalyst for Christian evangelization in the region, the pope said during a vibrant liturgy in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
As the pope read the canonization decree, the church erupted in a jubilant celebration that mixed native and European traditions. An Indian wearing the plumed "penacho" headdress blew a conch shell, a symphony orchestra played, and dancers clad in feathered costumes that recalled the new saint's Aztec ancestry shook rattles down the main aisle.
When St. Juan Diego's picture was carried to the altar, the circular basilica was filled with incense from below and showered in confetti from above.
Lucia Romero, 40, of Sonora, said the canonization would encourage indigenous people.
"I feel something inside me, very big. Now with Juan Diego a saint, we are going to feel more confident. Indigenous people always feel less, and this is going to encourage us," she said.
In his homily, Pope John Paul spoke about the Indians' precarious position in Mexico and other countries of the Americas and said the church supports their legitimate social aspirations and efforts to protect their traditional ethnic values.
"In praising the Indian Juan Diego, I want to express to all of you the closeness of the Church and the pope, embracing you with love and encouraging you to overcome with hope the difficult times you are going through," he said.
The pope looked tired throughout the Mass. As he sat slumped in a chair on the altar, his head at times slipped down on his chest, his gold miter almost in his lap.
He was on the last leg of an 11-day journey that also took him to Toronto for World Youth Day and to Guatemala, where he canonized a 17th-century missionary who worked among the poor.
In Mexico, he received the most exuberant welcome of his trip, as 2 million people lined the streets and chanted their love for the 82-year-old pontiff.
Professing his "deep respect and admiration" for Mexico's indigenous peoples, the pope carefully explained why the Church sees in St. Juan Diego a model of the Gospel's interaction with local cultures.
He recalled the essential elements of the saint's story: his visions of Mary in 1531 and his unsuccessful efforts to convince local church authorities of the apparitions — until he unfurled a cloak full of out-of-season roses to the local bishop.
The peasant's cloak or "tilma," which hangs in a glass case in the basilica, bore an image of a dark-skinned Mary, an image now recognized around the world. The pope said the "mestizo" or mixed-blood features of the miraculous likeness expressed Mary's spiritual motherhood for all Mexicans.
The "Guadalupe event" gave evangelization in Latin America a new vitality and offers an important missionary lesson for the whole Church, he said.
The canonization was not without controversy. Some Church experts, including three Mexican priests and the retired abbot of the Guadalupe basilica, maintained there is no proof of Juan Diego's historical existence and warned that declaring him a saint would harm the Church's credibility.
But the Vatican established a special commission of historians, which concluded in 1998 that Juan Diego had indeed existed. The pope did not refer to the dispute, but he said in his sermon that simple people have always considered Juan Diego a saint, proof of the biblical teaching that God is "glorified by the humble." He quoted the words of Jesus in the Gospel, saying that God has hidden some truths from "the wise and the learned" and revealed them to the childlike. The pope began Mexico's "Juan Diego Day" with an hour-long ride in his glass-walled popemobile through the streets of the city of 18 million people. Mexicans have always professed a special affection for the Polish-born pope, and it was visible and audible along the motorcade route, which turned into a flag-waving fiesta. The pope sat on an elevated chair holding onto a support bar, waving occasionally as flowers rained down on the hood of the vehicle. Traffic was tied up and the workday interrupted throughout much of the sprawling metropolis, as residents stood for hours to catch a glimpse of the pontiff. As he reached the basilica on Tepeyac Hill, the site of the saint's Marian apparitions, the crowd burst into chants of "Viva el Papa! Viva Juan Diego!" With St. Juan Diego's canonization, Pope John Paul has proclaimed 464 saints, more than all his predecessors combined. He insisted on making the trip to Mexico, even though some aides advised him to conduct the canonization in Rome and save himself the toil and trouble. The basilica began filling up before dawn. By sunrise, it reached its 8,000-person capacity, with another 12,000-14,000 filling the plaza outside. Large screens were set up outside the basilica, with another screen installed inside. Scattered among the crowd were a few foreigners, with a large portion of the audience drawn from Mexico's 64 indigenous groups, dressed in colorful costumes. Those in attendance received tickets from their local parish. No one paid for their ticket, Church officials said. Long lines of priests heard confessions outdoors throughout the morning before Mass. Contributing to this story was Jo Tuckman in Mexico City.
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