Presentation by Msgr. Eduardo Chávez
Postulator of the Cause for Canonization of Saint Juan Diego

Presentation by Monsignor Eduardo Chavez
Postulator of the Cause of Canonization of Saint Juan Diego

Monsignor Eduardo Chavez


It is evident the great devotion all Popes have had to Our Lady of Guadalupe, and millions of people, not only from Mexico, but from everywhere, find in her a message that is explicitly personal, that touches their hearts, converts them, and rekindles their faith, fills them with hope and makes them fall in love with the immense love of God.

Just as with any salvation event, the Guadalupan Event is a well-recorded moment in history. It happened 477 years ago, and in a specific place: the hill of Tepeyac. It transcends frontiers, cultures, peoples and customs; it touches the deepest sense of the human being. Moreover, it takes into account the participation of each human being, concrete and historical, with his or her defects and virtues, so that the intervention can reach beyond what human nature would allow. One of the clearest manifestations that the Guadalupan Event is in fact a salvation event, is the conversion of hearts, its ability to move and direct lives toward the only one who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, Jesus Christ, our Lord.  In this Event, God has taken the initiative to meet with the human being in a predetermined historical moment. This historical aspect is important when it comes to making a reality of a complete and total change of life, in order to create a culture of life and civilization of love from the root itself.

God intervenes by means of His own mother, Our Lady of Guadalupe, who is sent by the Father, through the Holy Spirit, to manifest her son, Jesus Christ, and allow every human being to become a participating part of Him. She is the first disciple and missionary who manifests and delivers to us the message of salvation. At the same time, she forms disciples and missionaries who can bear witness, at the expense of their own lives, to their immense joy upon encountering the love of Jesus Christ through His mother and our mother.

It is a real and true story, just as the Love of God is real and true. The Guadalupan Event is part of the history of salvation, and has a decisive influence upon the evangelization of the whole continent, just as the Holy Father affirmed. Our Lady of Guadalupe is the Star of Evangelization, “perfectly inculturated”, a role model for the entire world.

The Guadalupan Event, centered in Jesus Christ, our Lord, consists of the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe to an Indian named Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin (which means: Eagle able to speak), which took place between December 9th and 12th, 1531, on the hill of Tepeyac north of Mexico City.

Years earlier, after the Conquest of the Aztec empire by the Spanish in 1521, the natives´ religious rituals were done away with, including the human sacrifices they offered in an attempt to feed and nourish the gods so that the life cycle could continue. They thought that with their hearts and blood they could balance the cosmos; they believed that they nourish gods with that which is most important: their lives, their hearts and blood. But after the Conquest, no more hearts and no more blood are offered and the Indians are certain that the end of the world is coming. Now that the gods were no longer being fed, the natives feared that a catastrophe was imminent. 

We understand that the indigenous defeat experienced in the Conquest was not only a military one. It also resulted in an economic depression and a moral, spiritual, cultural, and religious collapse.

A small group of Franciscan missionaries had to face an enormous challenge among millions of indigenous that had comprised the Aztec empire. These saintly men had to do something to keep the Indians alive and at the same time they needed to evangelize them. There is little doubt that during the first evangelizing effort in Mexico, the work of the missionaries was extraordinary; however, the task was more than they could handle.

Friar Gerónimo de Mendieta wrote about the missionaries´ concern from the beginning of the evangelization, with being able to detach the natives from their gods. The missionaries kept trying in a thousand different ways to make themselves understood, but “neither the Indians understood what was being said in Latin, nor could their idolatry be stopped, and the priests could not admonish them or implement ways to stop them because they did not know their language. And they felt distraught and afflicted because of this.” Undoubtedly, they were worried. How can you evangelize millions of natives while involved in a dramatic conquest with only a few missionaries who at that time amounted to no more than thirty?  Moreover, their potential converts were decimated by a terrible disease, smallpox, which broke out shortly after the arrival of the Europeans and killed half of the indigenous population.

The friars were indeed very worried. While they were trying to defend the Indians from the mistreatment by the Spaniards, they were also trying to stop arrogance, hatred, and greed from destroying the Spanish community itself. The First Hearing, the Spanish civil government at that time was a terrible and most corrupt institution. Thefts, violations, corruption and unjust behavior plagued and seriously affected both the natives and some of the Spaniards who were trying to correct the situation. The Spanish missionaries suffered atrocities at the hands of their Catholic compatriots, who allowed their hearts to be tempted by incredible cruelty, going so far as to attempt to murder the bishop of Mexico City, Friar Juan de Zumárraga. The bishop was forced to excommunicate the members of the First Hearing, damaging their reputation in Mexico City. It was truly such an intensely complex time that Bishop Zumárraga wrote to the King while imploring God´s help: “If God does not intervene to provide a solution of His own, this land will be totally lost…”

And God intervened through the being He loves the most, His own mother, who chooses a humble indigenous to be her faithful messenger, her completely trustworthy intercessor: Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin.

On Saturday, December 9, 1531, Juan Diego was on his way to Tlatelolco to attend catechism when the Mother of God appeared to him. She asked him to be her messenger so that a sacred little house, a temple, could be built in the valley of Tepeyac where she could offer all her love through her Son, Jesus Christ. She said this needed to be approved by the bishop, Fray Juan de Zumárraga. Juan Diego displayed great strength and patience through many difficulties. At one point, the Bishop asked for a sign and the Virgin Mary asked Juan Diego to go back to Tepeyac so that she could give him the sign that had been requested.  

However, Juan Diego could not keep the appointment because he had to take care of his uncle who was gravely ill. On that day, Tuesday, December 12, he left very early in a hurry, to go to Tlatelolco to get a priest to take care of his uncle Juan Bernardino. Very distressed, he sought to avoid his meeting with the Virgin, going around the hill of Tepeyac, so that he would not be delayed. It was then that the Virgin of Guadalupe stopped him to tell him these most beautiful words, words that were also meant for us. “Listen, put it in your heart. My son, the youngest, whatever made you afraid and afflicted you […] do not be afraid […] Am I not here, I who have the honor and joy to be your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not the source of your happiness? Are you not in the hollow of my mantle and the embrace of my arms? Is there anything else you need?” The Lady from Heaven assured him that his uncle Juan Bernardino was already cured. Precisely at that moment, the Virgin appeared before the dying uncle and not only gave him back his health, but disclosed Her name: “Holy Mary of Guadalupe”. She gives her name to the elder, this means that she gives herself to the authority, the wisdom, the culture, the identity, the most important root for the Indian people.

Juan Diego had the faith and the hope to accept what the Virgin told him and made himself available to bring to the bishop the sign he had requested. The Virgin asked Juan Diego to go to the top of the hill, where he would find beautiful flowers to cut and put in his tilma.  Just as she said, Juan Diego found on that dry and rocky hilltop, a place of death, the most beautiful and extraordinary flowers. He did as he was told, and came down from the top of the hill, bringing inside his tilma the precious sign that the bishop had requested. The Virgin arranged each one of the flowers in Juan Diego´s tilma and sent him straight to Mexico City to deliver the promised sign to the bishop.

Juan Diego found himself before the bishop to give him the sign. For the Indian, the contents of his tilma were very eloquent, because, according to the native understanding, the truth is “flor y canto” (flower and song). He was bringing flowers from Tepeyac, where he heard the marvelous bird songs. The Indian was delivering the Truth in his tilma, much to everyone´s surprise. When Juan Diego opened his tilma with the flowers, at that moment, the beautiful image of Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared on it. It was a surprise for the bishop and for all those who were there observing the development of this wonder, as well as a surprise for Juan Diego because the printed image of the Virgin of Guadalupe in his tilma meant that he himself, the humble Indian, the layman, had turned into the sign itself. It was his tilma, and now he himself, his total person, was in the hands of the bishop, head of his Church. The tilma no longer belongs to Juan Diego, now it is part of the sign, now his tilma belongs to the bishop.

This has profound meaning: Juan Diego, the first indigenous layman canonized from the American Continent was turning into the sign of the Divine Presence in the hands of the bishop. In other words, the layman is the sign of the wonderful Love from God, through Our Lady of Guadalupe, inside the Catholic Church, for everyone in the world. Lay men and women, like you, are the sign from God through Our Lady of Guadalupe inside of the Church for everybody in this world and in this time.

You are the roses.

You are the flowers and songs.

You are the truth.

You are the sign from God to your brothers and sisters.

You are the new Civilization of Love!