NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      Mexico City, 21 (NE) After long debates over the historical existence of Juan Diego, the Mexican native witness to the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe, postulators of the canonization cause have declared that the process is quite advanced and has good proof of his historicity.

      As was made known by the Archdiocese of Mexico, Father Arthur Rocha Cortes, a member of the Postulator Commission for the Cause of Saints, has recently concluded his work "Documents to serve in the genealogy of Juan Diego".

      In this document it is explained that Juan Diego was a native descending nobleman of Netzahualpilli and of Moctezuma, who dominated the "cacicazgo" of Texcoco. It is also thought that Juan Diego, after the Marian apparitions and having been baptized, left polygamy in order to marry a single woman and live in chastity.

      Documents have also been discovered concerning the family and descendents of Juan Diego, such as Sister Maria Micaela Jeronima Escalona who was consecrated in 1739 and Sister Gertrudis Vazquez Towers, registered in 1726 at the convent of Corpus Christi as descending from Juan Diego.

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