The "Satanic Invention"

I don't take any pleasure in deriding the faith of the poor Mexican, or in taking away from him what little he has - the hope of an intercessor in the face of extreme hardship.

In 1556, Francisco de Bustamante, head of the Colony's Franciscans, delivered a sermon in which he ridiculed the supposed "holy" origin of the tilma image. He stated in part:

"The devotion that has been growing in a chapel dedicated to Our Lady, called of Guadalupe, in this city is greatly harmful for the natives, because it makes them believe that the image painted by Marcos the Indian is in any way miraculous."*

Fray Bernadino de Sahagún, a Spanish Franciscan missionary was the first great ethnographer of the New World. Sahagún chronicled every aspect of central Mexico - its birds, animals, natural resources, people, languages, history, and religion.

“In this place called Tepeyac they had a temple dedicated to the mother of the gods, that they called Tonantzin, which means “Our Mother”. There they gave many sacrifices in honor of this goddess. And they came from more than 20 languages and from all parts of Mexico, bringing many offerings... Men and women, as well as young men and young women came to these celebrations. There were great multitudes of people and everyone said, ‘Let’s go to the celebration of Tonantzin’. And now, there is in that same place a church built to Our Lady of Guadalupe, also called Tonantzin.”

Sahagún warned that it was not the Virgin Mary who was venerated on Teyepac Hill but the indians' own mother-goddess. He stated that this identification of Mary with Tonantzin "appears to be a Satanic invention."**

The "Satanic Invention"

An Empire fit for an Empress

...continued from The Empress of the USA : Part VIII

The Catholic Potential of Hispanic Immigration

A Revitalising Force for the Church

by Carl Anderson

"A few days ago, I came face to face with the future of the Catholic Church in the United States.

"As more than 20,000 people packed Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, Arizona, to pay tribute to Our Lady of Guadalupe on Aug. 8, I saw gathered both the Church of tomorrow, and the unity Our Lady of Guadalupe brings to the Church and to the American hemisphere.

"The event was co-sponsored by the Knights of Columbus, the Diocese of Phoenix, the Archdiocese of Mexico and the Instituto Superior de Estudios Guadalupanos. And in keeping with its international sponsors, the event drew a diverse crowd -- much of it Hispanic.

"As I told those assembled there, the future of the Church will, in large part, depend on the influence of Hispanic immigrants, and this in turn will be influenced by the welcome these immigrants receive from those Catholics already in the United States.

"These immigrants are not an abstraction. They are our fellow parishioners, and promise to be so in even greater numbers going forward.

"We might think of Hispanics in the Church in terms of mythical phoenix: the bird that rose up again every 500 years. Nearly 500 years after Our Lady of Guadalupe's transformation of this hemisphere, our Hispanic brothers and sisters represent the possibility of a rebirth and revitalization of Catholicism in the United States.

"According the U.S. bishops' conference, since 1960, 71% of the growth of the Catholic Church in the United States has been Hispanic. Hispanics now make up more than 35% of all Catholics in the United States -- and that number is growing.

"Today, five centuries after Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego and brought a new spiritual life into the ruins of a devastated empire, Hispanics have taken her image and her message and have breathed renewed life into the Church of the United States.

"But we -- the Catholics of the United States -- have a great responsibility to assist in this process. We cannot be spectators, we must be active participants.

"How Catholics welcome immigrants will largely set the tone of our common future as both a Church and a nation. Without our help and support, can we expect the Hispanic immigrants of today to become the Catholic parents of tomorrow?

"With Hispanics making up more than half of all Catholics under age 25, it's a question we as Catholics cannot ignore.

"The Catholic Church in the United States has great potential to be a model of cross-border unity, based upon a foundation of shared faith. It will require priest and laity to work together to find ways of reaching out to, and integrating, Hispanic Catholics.

"One out of five Catholics in the United States is a Hispanic immigrant, so this is not a reality that can be ignored. We cannot delay in taking up this mission.

"As citizens of a hemisphere that is indeed "a continent of baptized Christians," we must remember that just as Our Lady of Guadalupe points us to her son, she also points us to unity in her son, and for Catholics this unity of faith must transcend borders.

"Benedict XVI said in his first encyclical "Deus Caritas Est": "To say that we love God becomes a lie if we are closed to our neighbor or hate him."

"As Catholics, that means we must love every person: the immigrant, the unborn, the intellectually disabled.

"We are not called to do anything that our mother -- Our Lady of Guadalupe -- has not done herself. She appeared to Juan Diego -- a humble Indian. She appeared as a mestiza -- a union of European and Native American cultures.

"Following her example, we must embrace our immigrant Catholic brothers and sisters, realizing that they have an inherent dignity as a person, and that throughout the Americas all of us share a transcendent bond: a bond of faith.

"In the United States, our churches are flourishing, revitalized by the presence of Hispanic Catholics who have lived so long with the Virgin in their homes. Like the many generations of European immigrants before them, they have brought a deep and refreshing faith to the United States.

"Whether that faith fades or flourishes will depend on the reaction of those of us Catholics already in the United States, who are children of previous generations of Catholic immigrants.

Carl Anderson is the supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus and a New York Times bestselling author.

to be continued...

THE MIRACULOUS CACTUS...or Tequila Sunrise?

Now for the Tilma's miraculous spiritual properties:

According to Dan Lynch,  National Guardian of the Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe,' the Image of Our Lady is actually an Aztec Pictograph which was read and understood quickly by the Aztec Indians. *

1. THE LADY STOOD IN FRONT OF THE SUN — She was greater than their dreaded sun-god "Huitzilopochtli".

2. HER FOOT RESTED ON THE CRESCENT MOON — She had clearly vanquished their foremost deity, the feather serpent "Quetzalcoatl". 

3. THE STARS STREWN ACROSS THE MANTLE — She was greater than the stars of heaven which they worshipped. She was a virgin and the Queen of the heavens for Virgo rests over her womb and the northern crown upon her head. She appeared on December 12, 1531, for the stars that she wore are the constellation of stars that appeared in the sky that day!

4. THE BLUE‑GREEN HUE OF HER MANTLE — She was a Queen for she wears the color of royalty.

5. THE BLACK CROSS ON THE BROOCH AT HER NECK — Her God was that of the Spanish Missionaries, Jesus Christ her son.

6. THE BLACK BELT — She was with child for she wore the Aztec Maternity Belt.

7. THE FOUR-PETAL FLOWER OVER THE WOMB — She was the "Mother of God." The flower was a special symbol of life, movement and deity — the center of the universe. 

8. HER HANDS ARE JOINED IN PRAYER — She was not God but clearly there was one greater than Her and she pointed her finger to the cross on her brooch.

9. THE DESIGN ON HER ROSE-COLORED GARMENT — She is the "Queen of the Earth," for she is wearing a map of Mexico telling the Indians exactly where the apparition took place.

"...there is no scientific explanation for the 478 years of high quality-preservation of the Tilma or for the miracles that have occurred to ensure its preservation."

“Besides any natural explanation the acid has not destroyed the fabric of the cloth, indeed it has not even destroyed the colored parts of the image.”

“unexpectedly, neither the Tilma nor the normal glass that protected the Tilma was damaged or broken.”  The only damage near it was a brass crucifix that was twisted by the blast.

“There are no explanations why the shockwave that broke windows 150 meters afar did not destroy the normal glass that protected the image. Some people said that the Son by means of the brass crucifix protected the image of His Mother. The real fact is that we don’t have a natural explanation for this event.”

 “Our Lady visited Mexico 478 [?] years ago, but she remains there to give Her Love, Her Mercy and Her Care to anyone who needs it, and to bring Her Son, Jesus Christ to everyone who receives Him.”**

* Catholic Education Resource Centre

** Catholic News Agency

THE MIRACULOUS CACTUS...or Tequila Sunrise?

The time has come to take a look at the Tilma.

First, its miraculous physical properties...

"...there is no scientific explanation for the 478 [?] years of high quality-preservation of the Tilma or for the miracles that have occurred to ensure its preservation."

“All the cloths similar to the Tilma that have been placed in the salty and humid environment around the Basilica have lasted no more than ten years...”

 “The original Tilma was exposed for approximately 116 years without any kind of protection, receiving all the infrared and ultraviolet radiation from the tens of thousands of candles near it and exposed to the humid and salty air around the temple.”

“one of the most bizarre characteristics of the cloth is that the back side is rough and coarse, but the front side is ‘as soft as the most pure silk, as noted by painters and scientists in 1666, and confirmed one century later in 1751 by the Mexican painter, Miguel Cabrera.”

to be continued...

*  Hispanic News

...continued from The Empress of the USA : Part V

La Virgen

The full title of Our Lady of Guadalupe is, La Virgen Maria Santísima, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Patrona de México y Emperatriz de las Américas (The Most Holy Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Queen of Mexico and Empress of the Americas)

Rather than delve into the long and tortuous history of conflicts between "Protestant" and "Catholic" inhabitants and their descendants, suffice to say that the Catholic Church has never abandoned its dream to "catholicize" both North and South America - from pole to pole.

And so we will fast forward...

After centuries-long campaigns by a succession of Vatican agents and fifth-columnists to manipulate, destablize, isolate and undermine a largely "Protestant" USA,* the realization of the great dream sits perched upon the cusp of reality mainly due to entirely unrecognized but parallel activities.

Joyful Festival Concludes Week of Guadalupe Events

"Our Lady of Gudalupe and the tilma [cloak] of St. Juan Diego took center stage, literally, before thousands of faithful ones at the Guadalupe Festival on August 8 [2009]. An afternoon of song, dance, prayer, joyful celebrations and witness talks, the festival was held at the Jobing.com Arena, just outside of Phoenix, which was filled with nearly 20,000 attendees of all ages and many ethnic backgrounds.

"The festival concluded a week of events sponsored by the Knights of Columbus in Phoenix, starting with the Order’s 127th Supreme Convention and continuing with a three-day Marian Congress on Our Lady of Guadalupe.

"The highlight of the festival was a procession with the tilma relic, a small portion that was cut from Juan Diego’s tilma, and is on permanent display at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. It was loaned to the festival by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The relic was encased in a reliquary and draped by a chain upon a 17th century statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe that was placed on the arena’s center stage.

"The festival concluded with the praying of an international rosary, with prayers read in many languages, and meditations on the mysteries given by prominent Catholics from a number of countries.

"...Supreme Knight Carl Anderson gave the closing address, saying that the Knights of Columbus would continue to seek to bring all the people of America – North South and Central – in unity under the mantle of Our Lady of Guadalupe, to help build a culture of life and a civilization of love."

Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knight of Columbus

to be continued...

Elizabeth, by the Grace of God...Queene

 "Although a Guadalupe cult apparently flourished at Tepeyac as early as the mid-sixteenth century, it was probably modeled on the cult of the Virgin of Guadalupe of Estremadura, Spain's dark-skinned virgin and a favorite of the conquistadors.

"The location of the cult at Teyepac, on an Aztec religious site dedicated to the goddess Tonanztin, was typical of Spanish efforts to turn Indian sacred spaces to Catholic purposes. The earliest sources indicate that a statue rather than the tilma was the central focus of worship and while historical sources mention miracles attached to statue and tilma, there in no mention of miraculous apparitions, even in the writings of Bishop Zumarraga himself."

But a storm was approaching from the east. In 1584 -

"ELIZABETH by the Grace of God of England, Fraunce and Ireland Queene, defender of the faith, &c..." granted to Sir Walter Raleigh the right to discover and colonise any lands of the New World "not actually possessed of any Christian Prince, nor inhabited by Christian People..."***

** Mexico: An Encyclopedia of Contemporary Culture and History, Don M. Coerver, Suzanne B. Pasztor, and Robert M. Buffington, ABC-CLIO, 2004, pp 533-535.

Where Castilian Roses Bloom

...continued from The Empress of the USA : Part II

The Plumed Serpent

The history of the Spanish conquest of Mexico and its impact upon Mesoamerican religion and culture is a vastly complex subject so we will just touch upon it briefly.

In 1519 the Spaniard Hernán Cortés arrived at the gates of Tenochtitlan, the capital city of the Aztec Empire, with three interconnected dreams in his heart: expanding the Spanish empire, expanding Catholicism, and expanding his pockets with gold.

One of the chief deities of the Aztecs was Quetzalcoatl, the Plumed Serpent.

According to Robert D Kaplan,*

The view expressed by Baldwin that the Aztecs believed Cortés to be the returning Quetzalcoatl has been challenged by a number of Mesoamericanist scholars.

to be continued...

* Robert D Kaplan, New York Times Review of Books, Legends of the Plumed Serpent : Biography of a Mexican God, Neil Baldwin, Public Affairs, 1998

...continued from The Empress of the USA : Part I

The Spanish Virgin of Guadalupe

According to various Catholic sources, a statue of the Virgin Mary, supposedly carved by Luke the Evangelist,* had been given to Leander, the Archbishop of Seville by Pope Gregory I sometime between 590 AD and 604 AD.

When Seville was captured by the Moors in 711 AD, a group of priests [or knights] fled northward and buried the statue in the hills near the Guadalupe River in the Extremadura region.

Catholic Culture continues the story:

Let us meditate for a few moments on this statement: "Pertinent documents vouchsafed for the authenticity of the image."

During the next 150 years or so, the Marian shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe became the most popular pilgrimage site in fifteenth-century Spain, as is evidenced by the fact that on July 29, 1496, Christopher Columbus visited the shrine to thank the Virgin for her protection on his voyages.**

The small shrine built around the excavation site evolved into today's great monastery of Santa María de Guadalupe.

Following the voyages of Christopher Columbus, Spain and Portugal signed an agreement at Tordesillas in Spain in 1494. The agreement, known as the "Treaty of Torsedillas" was based on the Papal Bull "Inter Ceatera" issued in 1493 by Pope Alexander VI. [Rodrigo Borgia, famous as probably the most corrupt pope in history.]

The treaty effectively deeded to Spain and Portugal the entire New World and established "Christian" [Catholic] dominion and subjugation of non-Christian "pagan" peoples and their lands.

to be continued....

* See The King of Jerusalem : Part IV for other images supposedly painted by Luke the Evangelist

** In the Shadow of the Virgin: Inquisitors, Friars, and Conversos in Guadalupe, Spain, Gretchen D. Starr-LeBeau, Princeton University Press, 2003.