Even among such outstanding Marian shrines as Loreto and Lourdes, the sanctuary of Guadalupe in Mexico looms large. A reason is that its principal attraction, the image of the Lady of Guadalupe imprinted on December 12, 1531, on the tilma of Juan Diego, is a standing miracle by its defiance of the laws of decay now for almost five centuries. This booklet is written for those in the vast crowd, spreading all over the globe, of devout believers in that miracle who want to see into the frame of mind of those whose latest representatives did their best to forestall the canonization of Juan Diego in 2002. By then they had created a scholarly aura on behalf of doubts in documents that vouch for the Image and the historical reality of Juan Diego. The clash between the two groups, Apparitionists and anti-Apparitionists, is deeper than their respective appraisals of the documents on hand. Beneath that difference lies a disparity between those who instinctively grasp the supernatural and those who keep griping about it in order to escape its grip. With the act of Juan Diego's canonization, John Paul II put the seal of infallibility on the historical reality of Juan Diego and his virtues, as well as on the reliability of belief in the miraculous origin of that Image.

By Fr. Stanley L. Jaki

ISBN 978-1-892539-12-0 •  36 pages  •  softcover