NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

    MEXICO CITY (CWNews.com) - Mexican church leaders have erupted in a public argument over one of the country's most revered religious icons, a native Indian who first saw an apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

    The newspaper Reforma revealed last Thursday that the former abbot of the Basilica of Guadalupe, Father Guillermo Schulenberg had sent a letter to the Vatican's Congregation for the Cause of Saints disputing whether Blessed Juan Diego ever existed and objecting to plans for canonization. Father Oscar Sanchez, in charge of Juan Diego's cause, told the Televisa television network on Friday that the letter only delayed the process of canonization momentarily.

    Father Sanchez said he believed the process would soon resume, arguing that Father Schulenberg and two other priests who signed the letter have "zero credibility .... They have no authority." Bishop Onesimo Cepeda, a spokesman for Mexico's bishops' conference, told Televisa that Juan Diego's eventual canonization "is a given."

    In a 1995 interview with the Jesuit magazine Ixtus, Father Schulenberg said Juan Diego "is a symbol, not a reality" and he called Juan Diego's 1990 beatification by Pope John Paul II "recognition of a cult. It is not recognition of the physical, real existence of a person." He soon retired as abbot of the Guadalupe shrine following the controversy caused by his remarks.

    Mexican Catholic leaders have said they hope the declaration of sainthood might occur during Jubilee Year celebrations next year.

Articles provided through Catholic World News and Church News at Noticias Eclesiales and International Dossiers, Daily Dispatches and Features at ZENIT International News Agency. CWN, NE and ZENIT are not affiliated with the Daily CATHOLIC but provide this service via e-mail to the Daily CATHOLIC Monday through Friday.