No Real Miracle of the Virgin of Guadalupe David Quintero - The San Gabriel Valley Tribune
go to original December 12, 2013

There are two stories that surround the Virgin of Guadalupe: The official Catholic version, based on church dogma, which gives comfort to millions of the faithful; and the less well-known version, based on methodical scholastic investigation, which debunks the supernatural.

In colonial Mexico, the name “Juan Diego” was the equivalent of today’s “John Doe.” Thus, historians, some of whom are also Catholic priests, have concluded that he belongs exclusively to Mexican religious folklore.

Also, the events that culminated in Bishop Zumarraga’s viewing of the miraculous image imprinted on Juan Diego’s cape supposedly took place in 1531. Yet, the first recorded reference to the “miracle” didn’t happen until 1556 — 25 years later! Can you image the miraculous appearance of the Virgin Mary happening today — and church authorities not entering an official record of such an extraordinary event until 2038?

The “miraculous” image has been historically and scientifically proven to have been painted by a human artist. His name is recorded as Marcos Cipec de Aquino, an Aztec painter who was commissioned by Alonso de Montefur (the succeeding Bishop of Mexico City after the death of Zumarraga) to paint the image.

Competent historians, including Catholic clerical historians (Miguel Olimon, for example), are convinced that the Virgin of Guadalupe is a fabrication on a grand scale. They reason that after the conquest of Mexico by Spain, the Church needed an appealing and familiar Indian myth to convert the millions of pagan Mexican Indians.

Thus, the Church invented the Virgin of Guadalupe to replace Tonantzin, an Aztec goddess whom the Indians had worshipped for centuries.

And, in a maneuver to aid the Indians’ conversion from paganism to Catholicism, the Church built Our Lady of Guadalupe’s Basilica at Tepeyac, the very center of Tonantzin’s popular cult.

That ploy worked beyond the church’s wildest dreams! Even now, centuries later, the cult of the Virgin of Guadalupe is firmly entrenched in the Mexican culture.

See the original at The San Gabriel Valley Tribune

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