Pope Endorses Mexico’s First Indian Saint

Pope John Paul II opened the way Thursday for the canonization of 16th century shepherd Juan Diego as Mexico’s first indigenous saint, despite a recent controversy in which a prominent clergyman challenged that he ever existed.

Juan Diego’s vision of the Virgin of Guadalupe in 1531 on a hillside in what is now Mexico City led to the construction of the nation’s most important shrine, the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and helped make the virgin this country’s most beloved religious figure.

Roman Catholic pilgrims from around the country flock to the original basilica, and to an enormous modernistic basilica built next to it in 1976, to pay homage to the virgin and the shepherd. On Thursday, Mexicans who hold Juan Diego dear gathered there to celebrate the news.

Sainthood is expected to be bestowed on Juan Diego next year. The pope also signed decrees Thursday that will lead to the canonization of Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, the Spaniard who founded the lay order of Opus Dei, and Italian mystic monk Padre Pio.

Juan Diego was beatified in 1990, a step below sainthood. Two years ago, the basilica’s retired abbott, Guillermo Schulemburg, and two other prelates wrote to the pope asking him to withhold sainthood, claiming there had never been a Juan Diego.

That raised a chorus of protests here, with the shepherd’s supporters blaming Eurocentric racism for the idea that the virgin could not have appeared to an Indian.

Such a doubting claim cast aspersions on the legitimacy of the Virgin of Guadalupe, an image of the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus. She is said to have left her image emblazoned on Juan Diego’s frock, now hung in the new basilica. Reverence for the Virgin Mary is an integral part of Mexican nationalism and identity.

Schulemburg, who had first questioned the shepherd’s existence in a 1996 article, was publicly rebuked by the Vatican in 1999.

Juan Diego “is a racial symbol, a recognition . . . that Indians have souls,” said writer Carlos Monsivais of Mexico City.

His place in Mexican hearts never in doubt, Juan Diego is now set to become Mexico’s 29th saint, as the pope on Thursday recognized the occurrence of a miracle in his name, a prerequisite for canonization. The miracle cited happened in 1990, after a Mexico City man fell three stories in a suicide attempt and had been declared dead at the scene with severe head injuries. His mother reportedly invoked Juan Diego’s name, and the man survived.

Of the 28 Mexican saints who have preceded Juan Diego, 25 were martyrs who were killed by anticlerical elements in the turbulent post-revolutionary period in the 1920s and 1930s.

“When the martyrs from the religious wars were canonized some time ago, nobody paid attention,” Monsivais said, noting the fervor aroused by Juan Diego’s impending sainthood.

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Rafael Aguirre in The Times’ Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.