Dear Monsignor Romuald Kaminski
Bishop of the Diocese of Warsaw-Praga
Dear Father Przemyslaw
Dear friends:
I am very happy to be able to visit Warsaw for the inauguration of this chapel dedicated to the Virgin Saint Mary of Guadalupe. Almost four years ago I began working at the Holy See at the invitation of Pope Francis in the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, which is an organism within the Dicastery for Bishops. Pope Pius XII in the mid-twentieth century, realized that very soon half of the Catholic Church would be in Latin America. For this reason, he decided to create several organizations to encourage and serve the People of God in those lands. One of these organizations is precisely the Pontifical Commission in which I am secretary.
Over the years, and through the different pontiffs, the Church has shown a singular interest in the apparitions of the Virgin of Guadalupe on the hill of Tepeyac. Currently, not only is her miraculous apparition celebrated in Mexico and Latin America, but every December 12 the Pope celebrates the feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe in St. Peter’s Basilica, in front of the representatives of all the nations of the American continent, and numerous faithful from all parts of the world.
What does this mean? Why has the Church given increasing importance to the Virgin of Guadalupe? What importance can a chapel dedicated to this seemingly distant invocation have in Poland?
- An event of grace
These and other similar questions can be answered from different approaches. Your servant does not seek to offer an exhaustive explanation in any way. On the contrary, I only dare to share a brief meditation that comes from the bottom of my heart.
The Christian faith is not a philosophical discovery or an ethical conviction in the manner of the humanistic proposals that arise from the various pre-Christian religions. This does not mean that it does not possess a rational dimension or a moral implication. What I want to emphasize is that the gift of faith arises from the encounter with a living Person, from which life is reoriented. As long as there is no encounter with the living person of Jesus, as long as we do not verify that He is truly alive, the Christian discourse runs the risk of being reduced to a mere proposal of “values”. It is always opportune to remember that small passage from Benedict XVI’s Encyclical Deus caritas est, which Pope Francis liked so much:
“We have come to believe in God’s love: in these words the Christian can express the fundamental decision of his life. Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”1
These brief lines seek to affirm that the living Person of Jesus cannot be reduced or replaced by any abstract proposal, however interesting it may be. What moves and stirs the heart is not a theoretical discourse but the experience of a true Love that becomes an encounter. What produces the “metanoia”, the change of mentality that we call “conversion”, is experiencing the irruption of the Love of God that bows before our misery, before our nothingness, and embraces us unconditionally.
In other words, the deepest longing of our heart: to find a Love that always remains and never disappoints us, is only fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Christianity, from this point of view, is therefore always a grace, that is, an “Event” (Ereignis): our life passes with the normality of every day until, suddenly!, Someone surprisingly intercepts us, exceeding our highest expectations.
Precisely such a Christianity, a surprising penetration of God into History of this type, is what the first disciples of Jesus encountered two thousand years ago, and what the inhabitants of the “new world” encountered in the year 1531, on the distant hill of “Tepeyac”.
2. The events around 1521
As you all know, in 1492 the “new world” was discovered. From that moment on, the “west of the west” arose, that is, a new territory, a new set of peoples, which gradually “decentered” Europe from itself.
At the end of the 15th century, the American peoples lived their own history, had their own forms of social organization, spoke unknown languages, and believed in gods totally foreign to the European mentality.
For its part, the Spanish crown and the Portuguese crown thought that the only way to share the Christian faith was to affirm it through the sword. The encounter of these two worlds quickly transformed into a cultural and religious clash that assumed a violent and destructive profile.
Let’s say this in another way: despite the many differences, the European world and the world of pre-Columbian cultures, coincided in believing that force was the most important instrument to proclaim the truth. As the Europeans began to explore the new world, the conflict arose and in the year 1521, the Spanish military forces, allied with some indigenous communities, conquered the capital of the Aztec empire, called “Tenochtitlán”.
“Tenochtitlán” was a city that floated on a huge lake. To understand its dimensions, it is worth remembering that Venice in those same dates had 7 square kilometers of extension and an approximate population of 100 thousand inhabitants. “Tenochtitlán”, for its part, had about 20 square kilometers of urban area and 300 thousand inhabitants. If we take into account the population of the entire Valley of Mexico, that is, the Valley where the city we are talking about was located, the population amounted to one million inhabitants.
In the center of Tenochtitlán there was a pyramid of 45 meters high and 80 linear meters on each side of the base. This pyramid not only symbolized the religious and political power of the Empire. In some way it was the “center of the cosmos” existential and cultural of the natives. For this reason, the “Templo Mayor” was destroyed after the conquest. In the place it occupied, the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City was built, little by little.
As you can imagine, the death and destruction were enormous. During the ten subsequent years, various diseases decimated the population. Experts recognize that what happened was the largest demographic collapse that has existed in the American continent throughout its history. Of one million inhabitants in the Valley, the population decreased to 300 thousand people. In the urban area called “Tenochtitlán” it is estimated that there were only 30 thousand inhabitants, taking into account both the indigenous and the newly arrived Spanish population. 2
The “center of the cosmos” had been demolished. The indigenous population wondered: “Have we been abandoned by the gods?” “Where is life? Who can we trust our heart to?”3 The bewilderment, depression and resentment against the invading forces were very deep.
The Spanish crown, for its part, was heir to the political theology of its time. The kings believed that the proper way to “help” the Church was by governing it. This is how it is explained that the kings, and not the Pope, are the ones who decide to send Franciscan friars to evangelize the “new world”.
The results of the first efforts were very limited. The formula of evangelizing by destroying was not precisely successful. Even so, it must be recognized that the testimony of life of the friars was truly exemplary. In fact, the natives admired them for their austerity and coherence. However, ethical and ascetic admiration did not manage to arouse great conversions. Very few were interested in the Christian faith.
3. The miracle of Tepeyac in 1531
It is in this context of bewilderment within the indigenous world and of violent imposition that defined the style of action of the Spanish conqueror, that something happens that no one expected. From December 9 to 12, 1531, the Virgin Mary appears to a humble indigenous man converted to the Christian faith, named Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin.
The account of these Marian apparitions is found in a document called Nican Mopohua. In this brief text, of only 16 pages, everything that was happening is narrated in the Nahuatl language, and that unfortunately we cannot detail here.
Suffice it to say that Saint Juan Diego, when passing through the hill of Tepeyac on December 9, 1531, heard a song of the birds that accompanied a very soft melody. He saw a rainbow in the sky and the voice of a woman who said to him with great affection: “Juanito, where are you going?”.4 Prostrated before Her, Saint Juan Diego replied that he was going to the city of Tlatelolco, before which the Lady of heaven said to him:
“Know for certain, my son, the smallest, that I am the perfect ever Virgin Saint Mary, Mother of the true God for Whom one lives.” 5
Having said this, she asked him to take a message to the bishop of Mexico, requesting that a “sacred little house” be built for her where she would give help and protection to all the inhabitants of the new American lands.
Saint Juan Diego obeyed and went to the bishop, who asked him to return another day to listen to him more calmly. Upon returning, Saint Juan Diego meets the Virgin Mary for the second time and tells her that he was not successful in his commission, so he begs her to send someone else of higher rank. He was a poor indigenous man, without any social rank. The Virgin replies that he is the chosen one to carry out this task.
On Sunday, December 10, Saint Juan Diego returns to the episcopal palace. The bishop shows more interest but asks Saint Juan Diego for a “proof” that demonstrates the veracity of his sayings. When Juan Diego retires, the bishop sends some of his servants to follow him to obtain more information, which does not help him at all, since they lose sight of him.
Upon reaching the summit of the hill of Tepeyac, Saint Juan Diego tells the Virgin what happened and She agrees to give proof the next day. However, Saint Juan Diego does not attend the appointment of December 11 with the Virgin because he had to attend to his uncle Juan Bernardino, who was seriously ill.
In the early morning of December 12, Saint Juan Diego, disconsolate by the severity of his uncle’s illness, decides to go look for a priest to help him die well.
When passing through the hill of Tepeyac, he decides to avoid the Lady of heaven, and takes another path. However, the Blessed Virgin intercepts him and asks him:
“My son, the smallest: where are you going?” 6
Saint Juan Diego, ashamed, explains his concern, before which the Virgin Mary responds with the most transcendent words of her entire message:
“Listen, put it in your heart, my son, the smallest:
that it is nothing that frightens you, what afflicts you.
Let not your face, your heart be disturbed,
do not fear this disease or any other,
nor anything else that afflicts you.
Am I not here, who am your Mother?
Are you not under my shadow and protection?
Am I not the source of your joy?
Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms?
Do you need anything else?” 7
Later the Virgin will tell Saint Juan Diego that his uncle is already healed. She asks him to go up the hill of Tepeyac to collect some flowers that he must take to the bishop as a sign for him to believe. Saint Juan Diego collects the flowers and wraps them in his “tilma”, that is, in the cloak he was wearing.
Upon arriving at the bishop’s house, he waits for a long time. When finally, Fray Juan de Zumárraga receives him, he unfolds his tilma to show the flowers and the miraculous image appears stamped on the fabric. The bishop is totally astonished and kneels down.
There are no roses on the top of the hill of Tepeyac and less in December. But the most impressive thing is that the image has no traces of paint but the colors emerge in some way from the fabric itself.
“The bishop, with tears, with sadness, asked him for forgiveness for not having carried out his
will immediately”. 8
Saint Juan Diego, shortly after, went to see his uncle who told him that the Virgin had healed him. From this moment on, numerous miracles of healing began to happen, both among the indigenous and the Spanish population. Very quickly the image of the Virgin Mary, eclipsing the indigenous sun-god, and stepping on a black moon with her feet, was identified as a powerful protector even against demons.
However, perhaps the most impressive miracle for its proportions and for its effects in the short and long term was that the first mestizo families began to constitute themselves and did so as Christian families. In other words, two deeply estranged and fractured peoples began to live a process of social reconciliation because of the encounter with Jesus Christ through Mary. From this empirical fact emerged an enormous and new cultural synthesis that today we call Latin America.
4. What can we learn from this “event”?
The process of evangelization, and the social reconciliation that gradually operated from 1531, are not minor events. The importance of this can not only be seen by remembering that 48% of the Catholic Church worldwide is currently in Latin America, but by understanding the profound meaning of the Guadalupe message.
In other words, it is easy that narrating things as we have done today, it seems that we are simply talking about a beautiful Marian invocation from a remote land. In other words, it is very easy to think that the meaning of Mary of Guadalupe is exhausted in certain geographical coordinates (America) and in an important but distant history for Poland or for the Europe of our time.
However, in our opinion the message of the Virgin of Guadalupe possesses a universal dimension, that is, it reminds us of things that we must all keep in mind, without exception.
We can begin to notice this when we discover some providential “clues”. I mention three clues:
- On May 11, 2005, Pope Benedict XVI blesses a statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe in the Vatican gardens. At the moment of making the prayer he says:
“Holy Mary, who under the invocation
of Our Lady of Guadalupe
you are invoked as Mother
by the men and women
of the Mexican people and of Latin America,
encouraged by the love that inspires us,
we put again
in your maternal hands our lives.
You who are present
in these Vatican gardens,
reign in the heart
of all the mothers of the world
and in our hearts.
With great hope,
to you we come and in you we trust”.
- On March 25, 2022, Pope Francis consecrates Russia and Ukraine to the immaculate heart of Mary. In the prayer of consecration the Holy Father says:
“In the misery of sin, in our weariness and frailties, in the mystery of iniquity of evil and of war, you, Holy Mother, remind us that God does not abandon us, but continues to look at us with love, desiring to forgive us and lift us up again. It is He who has given you to us and has placed in your immaculate Heart a refuge for the Church and for humanity. By his divine goodness you are with us, and even in the most adverse vicissitudes of history you lead us with tenderness. That is why we turn to you, we knock on the door of your Heart, we, your beloved children whom you never tire of visiting and inviting to conversion.
In this dark hour, come to help us and comfort us. Repeat to each of us: “Am I not here, who am your Mother?”.
- On December 12, 2031, the fifth centenary of the apparitions of the Virgin of Guadalupe will be celebrated. Providentially, this date is very close to the commemoration of the second millennium of the Redemption in 2033. With this perspective, Pope Francis, on December 12, 2022, called us to participate in the Guadalupan “Intercontinental” Novena. The expression “intercontinental” subtly invites us to go beyond the American borders to discover the universal dimension of this Marian message.
These “clues” compel us to begin to make the effort to understand the universal dimension of the Guadalupan event. Through the image, the message, and the action that Saint Mary of Guadalupe carries out in Saint Juan Diego and in the American people, we can see at least five important things that far surpass the merely “American” reality:
- CHRISTOCENTRIC MARIOLOGY: First, the message of the Virgin of Guadalupe to Saint Juan Diego clearly announces the Son of God as the only redeemer of humanity. She does not propose herself tacitly or explicitly as the center but as the way to her Son. Mary of Guadalupe is pregnant; she is the Virgin of Advent.
She joins in the offering of her Son on the Cross, constantly giving us her Son. This means that Guadalupe is the affirmation of a radically Christocentric Mariology, in which the important thing is He who is to save us all. - INCULTURATED EVANGELIZATION: the image and message of Tepeyac assume without destroying the languages, symbols, and mentality of the pre-Hispanic communities. In this way, Guadalupe reminds us of the logic of the incarnation, which is the heart for understanding inculturated evangelization. “Inculturated evangelization” does not refer only to forms of inculturation carried out in the past but to the forms of inculturation that need to be carried out in the present and in the future. In this way, the Virgin of Guadalupe teaches us to appreciate our own culture, our own history, and also everything true, good, and beautiful in the new advent society.
The gospel is also called to be incarnated in the new youth cultures, always following the ancient principle of Saint Irenaeus: “what is not assumed is not redeemed.” Under this light, the essential thing about the Guadalupan message is not “to extend the Guadalupan devotion” and much less under “Mexican” or “Latin American” forms, but to rediscover the way in which Jesus Christ has been announced through Mary in the culture and language of each people and nation of the world. This implies rediscovering the meaning of one’s own Marian advocations and their role in the configuration not only of personal spirituality but of the national and ecclesial identity of each people. - PREFERENTIAL OPTION FOR THE “LITTLEST”: Saint Juan Diego is a faithful, marginal indigenous layman who is chosen by Mary to fulfill an extraordinary mission.
God does not choose the strongest, the wisest, the richest, the most influential for the transformation of the world and of History. He chooses the “smallest,” the poorest, the “last” of all. In effect, the poorest evangelize us, because in their fragility, the theological action of God in their souls finds less resistance. In other words, he who knows himself to be poor, powerless, incapable, is a more docile and willing instrument than he who believes he knows, has, or can. The Kingdom is born from a mustard seed, not from a strategic project to change the world. - REINVINDICATION OF THE ROLE AND DIGNITY OF WOMEN IN EVANGELIZATION: The peoples of America are born from a feminine presence. Moreover, Mary is the mediatrix of all graces, because the fundamental Grace that is Jesus Christ is born of Her. In Guadalupe we can learn that it is true that there is a “Marian principle,” that is, a charismatic principle that animates the Church and that places, mysteriously, women, all women, in a role that today we have to discover with more clarity. The most important evangelizing force in the Church is women, without a doubt. Without mothers, wives, and consecrated women, the Church would be reduced to practically nothing. Furthermore, from the point of view of the Mystery of grace, the entire hierarchical dimension of the Church passes through the hands of Mary. Even the priestly graces pass through the hands of the “full of grace,” who, by the way, is not a priest! This alone should invite us with sufficient force to make a deeper and fuller recovery of the role of women in the life of our communities.
- SYNODALITY AND COMMUNION: Saint Juan Diego, a faithful, marginal layman, but sent by Mary, brings the good news to the bishop. In other words, the layman evangelizes the bishop! The bishop, rightfully, asks for a sign, and Saint Juan Diego obeys. In this circularity, a proto-experience of simultaneous synodality and communion is established. Synodality is the dynamic dimension of communion. If communion is affirmed without synodality, we easily fall into the temptation of believing that we must respond as a Church in a rigid and uniform way always. If synodality is affirmed without full communion, one incurs in ecclesiastical populism. Communion and synodality are two faces of the same ecclesial mystery. To learn to be and act as a synodal Church, it is necessary to look at Mary: She is the “type,” “model” of the Church. Mary is the Church as it should be. 9
5. By way of conclusion: Mary of Guadalupe is a “method”
Saint Mary of Guadalupe is a method to relearn to mature in faith. The Virgin, through the message of Tepeyac, does not threaten us with punishments, nor does she reproach us for our sin. With tenderness and patience, she accompanies us along the way and reminds us that it is not despite our limits that God acts. God does not act “despite” us but through us. All He asks of us is to recognize those limits with simplicity and to offer ourselves totally as we are, to His merciful Love, in each Eucharist.
Maturity in faith is not achieved through a titanic effort of the will or a program of human improvement. Maturity in faith arises when our awareness increases that we are made by Another, who always sustains us and never leaves us.
The Virgin Mary is the providential “mother” of this process. This is how She adopts us and educates us. Let us ask the Virgin of Guadalupe with confidence that we learn to let ourselves be educated and corrected by Her. In this way, the miracle of conversion and reconciliation that happened from 1531 in America can be repeated, in unprecedented ways, also in other peoples and in other cultures. We must not lose Hope. The vocation of our families and of our nations is not polarization, violence, and fracture. God’s plan is another. The Church is the sacrament of unity, of forgiveness, and of reconciliation brought by Jesus Christ through Mary. With Mary, God’s plan for humanity can be realized within us and in the whole world.
Amen.
RODRIGO GUERRA LÓPEZ
SECRETARY
PONTIFICAL COMMISSION FOR LATIN AMERICA
E-MAIL: rodrigoguerra@mac.com
1. BENEDICT XVI, Deus caritas est, n. 1.
2. Among others, see: N. SÁNCHEZ-ALBORNOZ, La población de América Latina: desde los tiempos precolombinos al año 2000, Alianza Universidad, Madrid 1973.
3. These expressions come from the “sad songs” written by the Aztecs after the destruction of the capital of the Empire. For a broad context of this entire situation, see: M. LEÓN-PORTILLA, MIGUEL, Visión de los vencidos: Relaciones indígenas de la conquista, UNAM, México 1959.
4. Nican Mopohua, n. 23.
5. NIcan Mopohua, n. 26.
6. Nican Mopohua, n. 107.
7. Nican Mopohua, n.n. 118-119.
8. Nican Mopohua, 187.
9. Cf. VATICAN COUNCIL II, Lumen Gentium, Cap. VIII.