Guadalupe: The Miracle and the Message (2015) - full transcript

Nearly
five centuries have passed,

yet this event endures
in the hearts of millions,

transcending divisions
and uniting cultures

with its timeless message.

An ancient fabric
miraculously intact,

an image that defies
scientific explanation,

an intricate set of symbols

that would bridge two worlds
and countless cultures,

and the transformation
of a continent.

This is the story
of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

When Pope John Paul II arrived
in Mexico City



for the canonization of
Saint Juan Diego

in July of 2002,

millions of Mexican Catholics
turned out.

They lined the streets
and filled the plazas.

They came together
to celebrate the making

of the first indigenous saint
of the Western Hemisphere

and the woman whose image has
changed the course of history.

- The canonization
of Saint Juan Diego

is very significant,

because if the apparition
of Our Lady of Guadalupe

is not authentic,

there is no Saint Juan Diego.

So as part of that whole process

of reviewing the life
of Juan Diego,



you have to validate,
authenticate

the apparition
of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

So that's one way in which
his canonization

is very significant.

When the Spanish
conquistador Hernán Cortés

landed in Mexico in 1519,

he encountered
a thriving Aztec empire

that extended throughout
Mexico's central plateau.

According
to an indigenous legend,

the Aztec god Huitzilopochtli
delivered a sign

indicating where they should
build their city:

at the site where an eagle,
perched on a cactus,

was seen devouring a snake.

In 1324, the Aztecs founded
a city named Tenochtitlan,

which for them
was the center of the universe,

the place where the cycle
of the universe was sustained

by human sacrifices.

Hernán Cortés formed
a military alliance

with native tribes
opposed to the Aztecs.

Amazingly,
in just two short years,

he succeeded in conquering
the Aztec empire.

The Spaniards began
constructing a new capital

using materials

from the recently destroyed
Tenochtitlan,

or present-day Mexico City.

During the first stage
of evangelization,

a few missionaries attempted to
convert the indigenous people.

However, the task
would prove to be

a very arduous undertaking.

- To understand
the dramatic impact

that Our Lady of Guadalupe has
on the native population,

you really have to put yourself
in the position of these people

at the collapse
of the Aztec Empire

and what their understanding
of religion really was.

We have to remember
the horrific face

of the Aztec deities

that were there to receive
the human sacrifices.

We have to understand
the history of the Flower Wars,

in which battles were waged

in order to obtain prisoners
for sacrifice.

So now what were
the native peoples expecting

the god of the Spaniards
to be like,

the victors to be like?

Bishop Juan de Zumárraga

was known as protector
of the Indians.

He bears the responsibility
of defending the natives

from cruel abuses carried out
by the new Spanish government,

including their widespread
enslavement and murder.

His courageous stand

leads to at least one
assassination attempt

by corrupt members
of the first audiencia,

or royal court, in New Spain.

Bishop Zumárraga, infuriated
by the continued abuses,

and facing numerous threats

against the lives
of his fellow priests,

decides upon drastic measures.

In 1530, he excommunicates the
members of the first audiencia

and abandons Mexico City.

Zumárraga wrote
a letter to Emperor Charles V

detailing the many abuses
carried out

against the native people.

The story of what happens next

is passed down
through the centuries

by the humble man
who experienced this event

and who shared his encounter
widely.

Eventually, his testimony is
captured in an ancient text

known as the Nican Mopohua,
written in the 16th century

by the Indian scholar
Antonio Valeriano.

The Nican Mopohua

recounts the story
of Juan Diego,

a Catholic convert and widower.

His Indian name
was Cuauhtlatoatzin,

meaning "eagle who speaks
divine things."

Some skeptics have cast doubt

on Juan Diego's
historical existence,

a claim denied
by Miguel León-Portilla,

a premier authority
on Aztec language and culture.

- In the apparitions in Mexico

of Our Lady of Guadalupe,

like many other apparitions
in the world,

oftentimes Our Lady will appear
to very humble people

and, in this case,
to the Indian Juan Diego,

a humble man, a very simple man
of simple faith,

because those who have a heart
like children

and who are open to God
can receive this message.

On December 9, 1531,
Juan Diego walks

along the western side
of Tepeyac Hill

on his way to catechism
at a Franciscan mission

just north of Mexico City.

According to the account

in the Nican Mopohua,

the woman identifies herself
as "the mother of the true God"

and asks that a sacred house
be constructed in her honor

on Tepeyac Hill.

She asks Juan Diego
to bring this message

to Bishop Zumárraga.

Juan Diego returns to
Tepeyac Hill empty-handed.

The woman asks him to return
to Bishop Zumárraga

with the same message.

He obeys, and this time,
the bishop asks for a sign.

On Monday,
Juan Diego fails to show up.

His uncle Bernardino
is gravely ill, facing death.

He asks Juan Diego
to find a priest

to administer last rites.

On December 12, 1531,

Juan Diego sets out
towards Tlatelolco

to find a priest for his uncle.

In a hurry,

Juan Diego tries to avoid
meeting the virgin.

He goes around Tepeyac Hill,
but the woman comes down

from the top of the hill
and cuts him off.

Juan Diego explains
why he is in a hurry.

But the woman tells him
to have no more fear,

that she holds him
in the fold of her mantle

and in the cradle of her arms,

and she assures him
that his uncle is well.

Juan Diego asks her to honor him

but letting him be
her messenger.

Our Lady of Guadalupe
now instructs him

to climb to the top
of Tepeyac Hill

and gather up in his tilma
all the flowers he finds.

Upon reaching the summit,
Juan Diego is amazed

to find extraordinary flowers
in full bloom.

These flowers would be the sign
for the bishop.

This remarkable image...

Inexplicable in its style,
luminous colors, and imagery...

Would change the course
of history

for the entire continent.

Today that sacred house
asked for by the Virgin

is now the Basilica of Our Lady
of Guadalupe,

the most visited
Catholic shrine in the world.

Each year,
millions of pilgrims come

to celebrate their faith

and the miraculous image
of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The shrine
of Our Lady of Guadalupe

is a source of inspiration
for the faithful.

They come here to find
the comfort of their mother

and to pray
for her intercession.

- A lot of the pilgrimages
that I've done,

a lot of the people
are from the United States.

They don't have any Latino
heritage or anything.

But they've always wanted to go,

and the blessings
that they receive...

I've seen people start
to pray the rosary again.

People have gone to confession
for the first time in many years

when they've gone to the shrine.

Spiritual direction,
the healing of marriages,

reconciliations between
family members and so forth.

It's really
a tremendous blessing

that takes place there,

and I think that Our Lady's
presence in that tilma,

still to this day,
has a lot to do with that.

- The first time I went

to the shrine
of Our Lady of Guadalupe

and approached the tilma,

I knew I was entering
into the presence

of something sacred and holy.

The supernatural presence
of the icon

made an impression on me.

I was immediately touched
by the devotion of the people.

I mean, it was
an incredible experience

of their tenderness

and their approach to Mary
as their mother.

And from that moment on,

I've had a loving experience
of Mary.

The image
of Our Lady of Guadalupe

holds many unsolved mysteries.

The first mystery
is its very existence.

A 1946 study by the National
Autonomous University of Mexico

confirmed that the tilma
is made of ixtle,

or izote agave fibers
from the cactus plant.

- I think it's very important

to examine miracles
in a scientific way

and to look for an explanation
in the natural world,

which everybody tends to do
and wants to do,

and then we discover
a rather miraculous things

that can't be answered
from ordinary experience.

In the 18th century,

a scientist named Dr. Bartolache

commissioned the creation
of two works

similar to the Guadalupe image.

These paintings were also
created on agave cloth

and were placed in locations

around the Basilica
of Guadalupe.

The survival of the tilma

is even more amazing
when one considers

that it was left
completely unprotected

for more than a century.

Many aspects of the image

defy logic and science.

The tilma has a seam
running down its center

rendering the cloth
a poor canvas choice.

But researchers are astonished
to discover

that the very flaws
of the tilma's fabric

reveal the genius of the image.

The tilma also lacks
any preparation or imprimatura,

a necessary step
when painting on fabric.

The lack
of preparation is made clear

by a startling realization.

The same image appears
on both the front and back

of Juan Diego's tilma.

In 1795,

an accident nearly destroys
the tilma.

A worker
cleaning the glass encasement

clumsily spills nitric acid
on the image.

Among the many wonders

of the Guadalupe apparition
are new discoveries being made

into the images
present in her eyes.

José Aste Tonsmann
is a Peruvian engineer

and an expert
in digital image processing.

In the late 1970s,

he began applying his studies
to the tilma.

In the human eye,

the cornea reflects the image
in front of us.

Both eyes will show
the same image

but different sizes.

This phenomenon is precisely
what Tonsmann found

when magnifying both eyes.

Each eye contained mirror
images of the same scene.

The incredible devotion

inspired by
Our Lady of Guadalupe

and her miraculous image

can be traced back
to the very first years

following her apparition
to Saint Juan Diego.

Despite ongoing tension

with the Spanish colonial
government,

the apparition triggers one of
the greatest conversions

to the Catholic faith
in history.

- This marks a difference
in the type of evangelization

between the New World
and the Old World.

What had been
the typical model was,

one baptized the prince
or the king or the queen,

and the followers followed
his decision

as to the religion
of the kingdom.

But in The New World,
what happened

with Juan Diego
and Our Lady of Guadalupe

was a conversion beginning
among the people

that then filtered up

instead of a conversion
at the top

which filtered down.

The native people are drawn

by Juan Diego's
powerful encounter

with Our Lady of Guadalupe,

but they are also amazed
by an image

that reveals the Christian faith

through symbols
they could understand.

In Aztec society, codices,
or pictorial manuscripts,

were an essential means
of communication.

The image
also contained symbolism

that would transform
the worldview

of the indigenous people.

Their new understanding of God
and of love

would help eliminate
the long-standing practice

of human sacrifice.

Like European iconography,

Our Lady of Guadalupe
is standing on the moon,

but for the indigenous mind,

the moon represented the home
of the omnipotent God.

The many symbols

in the image
of Our Lady of Guadalupe

led to millions of conversions.

This powerful symbolism
was further strengthened

by a major festival
called Panquetzaliztli,

celebrated
around the winter solstice,

which, in the Julian calendar,
took place on December 12th,

the same date as the apparition
of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

- With Our Lady of Guadalupe,
what we find

is actually the transformation
of a culture

according to new norms

validating its own heritage
and its own history.

Good example of this
can be seen in Mexico in 1544,

when Mexico experienced

one of the worst droughts in
its history.

Typically, the Aztecs responded
to such a situation

by the massive sacrifice
of many young children.

After Our Lady of Guadalupe
in 1544,

there was a massive pilgrimage
of young children

to the shrine
of Our Lady of Guadalupe,

so the transformation

from a culture, we might say,
of death

to a culture of life.

Our Lady of Guadalupe
is often called La Morenita,

a reference
to her darkened complexion

that makes her the perfect
symbol of a mixed people.

- Saint John Paul II referred
to Our Lady of Guadalupe

as the perfect model
of enculturation.

This means that she comes
to the indigenous people

in their own customs
and imagery.

And, in fact, in her face,
the mestiza face,

they see in her an affirmation
of their human dignity,

their human worth,

and of course the response
is overwhelming.

Even during the
Mexican Revolution of 1910,

Emiliano Zapata and his troops
entered Mexico City

carrying a banner
of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Despite Mexico's
Catholic identity

and the Guadalupan devotion,

church state tensions reach
a peak during the 1920s.

In an effort to suppress
the faith of Mexico's citizens,

the government set out
to destroy

the church's
most important symbol.

In 1921, an agent
working for the government

places a bomb
hidden in a basket of flowers

directly under the tilma.

In the following years,

the persecution of Catholics
only increases.

This leads to a rebellion

against the repressive
government

known as the Cristero War.

These Catholic freedom fighters
choose Our Lady of Guadalupe

as their patron
and their inspiration.

Many victims of the Cristero war

flee to the United States.

This mass immigration serves

to increase
the already budding devotion

to Our Lady of Guadalupe
outside Mexico's borders.

- The Cristero imprint
on Mexicans

coming to the United States
was rather large,

because a lot of the people
who were exiled from Mexico

during the Cristero period
came to Los Angeles,

and they wore it
on their shirtsleeves.

That was... if you were Mexican,
you were a Guadalupano.

And so the devotion has been
very strong.

It's spread now
throughout the United States.

In 1941, delegates
from the 20 American republics

came to the shrine of Our Lady
of Guadalupe in Mexico City

to pray for peace

amidst the horrors
of the Second World War.

Archbishop John Cantwell
of Los Angeles

led a delegation
from the United States.

The Mexican church
was so grateful

for Archbishop Cantwell's
presence and support

that they gifted
the Los Angeles archdiocese

with a relic of Saint Juan
Diego's miraculous tilma.

To this day, it remains
the only such relic

in the United States.

In recent years,

under the auspices
of the Knights of Columbus,

the relic has passed through
numerous American cities

and been venerated at large
Guadalupan celebrations

in both Phoenix and Los Angeles.

N- In speaking of a New World,
what we're really talking about

is the unity of different
peoples and different cultures

to create something
that did not exist before.

In the United States,
for example,

our country
is a great melting pot

of many immigrant groups,
of many ethnicities,

of many religious traditions

coming together
to forge a new society.

This is primarily the message
of Our Lady of Guadalupe,

that regardless of differences,

there is a basic unity
of human dignity

and a respect
for different cultures.

And if we maintain that,

we can actually create
something new.

- I have my passion for surfing,

and I have my passion
for Our Lady,

especially Our Lady
of Guadalupe.

When I was a young man,
I was raised

in a very difficult, tumultuous
family setting,

and I really bit
onto the culture

and the bad things
of the culture.

So I got involved with a lot of
drugs and lot of promiscuity.

It was after reading a book
about the Blessed Virgin Mary

that I really got what I call
the divine 2x4 experience.

God just hammered me
with the truth,

and I fell madly in love
with him and with Our Lady

and with the Catholic Church.

I do consider myself
a Guadalupano.

She's my mother,
and I feel united with those

that I don't even speak
their same language.

A mother always unites
her children,

and that's a big part, I think,
of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The spread of devotion

to our Lady of Guadalupe

across the American continent
is captured

in this beautiful and idyllic
shrine dedicated in her name.

La Crosse, Wisconsin,
is a far cry

from bustling Mexico City,
but it is here

that a new generation of
Guadalupanos is being formed.

- Thank you very much.

- Thank you.

- After the synod on America,
the church in America,

in which Saint John Paul II
underlined so powerfully

the importance
of Our Lady of Guadalupe

for the living of the faith
in the whole continent:

North America, Central America,
South America.

Then I understood that it
should be a shrine to Our Lady

under her title
Our Lady of Guadalupe.

- We have people coming
from everywhere.

I've had people
from as far away as China.

The ones that are always
the most interesting

are the ones who simply see
the roadside sign

and just come in.

- What I hear most of all
from the pilgrims

is that when they come here,

the minute they come up
on the grounds,

they have a sense of peace,
and they're inspired to pray.

The heart of the message
is very simple,

that she wants to show
to her children

God's love for them.

- I've always been infatuated
with the story

of Our Lady of Guadalupe
and her message

and Saint Juan Diego,

and we've always tried to
share that with our children,

and we happened to kind of just
stumble upon it.

Then we found out they were
building this church,

so we've kept coming now for
the last eight or nine years.

- I came from California,
from San Diego,

to commemorate this shrine,

because she is Our Lady
of the Americas,

and she's really a lady
for all of us,

for those
from the tip of Argentina

all the way up to
the United States and Canada.

So we look to her for guidance,

for inspiration
in our daily lives.

The shrine in La Crosse

has opened new hearts
to the message of Guadalupe

and has united people
of all ethnic backgrounds

in their common faith.

- I can speak to Our Lady
of Guadalupe's effect

in the local community and with
the people who come here.

It's a community of believers,

and I think that the propagation

of devotion
to Our Lady of Guadalupe

beyond the Hispanic community

will simply bring
more understanding

that we're all in this together.

The whole thing
initially was funded

by well-meaning Anglos,
non-Hispanics

who simply caught the message
of what the Pope was saying

and what the bishop,
now Cardinal Burke, was saying

and went with it.

It's... you have to see it

to even believe
this could happen.

As patroness of the Americas,

our Lady of Guadalupe
also inspires Canadians.

And in a special way, she speaks

to the First Nations
communities.

- When I read that story

and how,
as early as December 1531,

when Our Lady appeared to an
indigenous person in Mexico,

speaking his language
and taking, in fact,

a complexion
of indigenous children,

I was just overwhelmed
and deeply touched.

First of all, she takes
the complexion of our people

and how she knew
of the particular distress

that the people were in,

how they were treated
less than human

but how she came
to raise their dignity.

And when you stop and think,

when Our Lady appeared
to Saint Juan Diego,

at the time,
his age was 57 years old.

And so she appears to elders,

which elevates, then,
the significance of elders

in all our cultures
as indigenous peoples.

Inspired by the
mestiza face of Our Lady,

Nicholas began touring
First Nation communities

with the Guadalupe image,

sharing Juan Diego's encounter
and example

of an enculturated
evangelization

that respects indigenous
culture and experience.

- When I first saw
the missionary image

of Our Lady of Guadalupe
which is Canadian,

I fell in love with her
immediately,

but I was overcome by the fact

that this was the face
of Our Lady,

of the mother of Jesus.

And the only place in the world

where she has left behind
her face was in Mexico.

Each summer, I bring
the missionary image

of Our Lady of Guadalupe
to this area of New Brunswick

and go around to not only
First Nation communities

but non-native communities
as well

to actually share the story.

And so when you hear words
of people

who are the walking wounded

and then later on
you see them rejoice,

they say, "Thank you very much

for bringing the story of
Our Lady of Guadalupe to us."

And there are many, many stories

over this past eight years

that I've taken the image around

where she has brought
great comfort to people.

- The fact
that Our Lady of Guadalupe

communicates with a poor person
like Juan Diego

is a message of what we call now
option for the poor,

which Pope Francis is
talking about all the time.

Our church must be a church
of the poor for the poor,

evangelical poverty of
simplicity and of humility

and that is a very strong
message for today.

While devotion to Guadalupe

remains most widespread
in the Western Hemisphere,

it is increasingly
a global phenomenon.

At the National Shrine of Our
Lady of Guadalupe in Manila,

Filipino Catholics continue
a centuries-long tradition.

- Our Lady of Guadalupe

has a great impact
on the Filipinos.

The devotion was brought in
from Mexico

through Spanish missionaries
and such that by 1935,

the Holy Father Pius XI,
at that time,

decided to declare
Our Lady of Guadalupe

as the patroness
of the Philippines.

There are two things
that were originally, I think,

was the inspiration
for the people to be in love

with Our Lady of Guadalupe.

One is the color.

The color of the Blessed Mother
Guadalupe is an Indio,

and we were called Indios
by the Spaniards.

The second is that the one
to whom he appeared

was also an Indio, Juan Diego.

I think that the impact
of the devotion to Our Lady

is not only on families
but all society in general.

- Until recently,
Our Lady of Guadalupe

has been seen almost exclusively

as a Mexican phenomenon

or a Latin American Hispanic
phenomenon,

but we need
to open our horizon a bit.

We have to understand

that she is the patroness
of the Philippines,

and so she reaches the hearts
of millions of Asians.

We have to remember
that at the time

of the appearance
of Our Lady of Guadalupe,

New Spain existed

throughout the western part
of the United States,

and so she is an apparition
for the United States

as well as for Mexico.

- Our Lady of Guadalupe is the
mother of the Sisters of Life.

We process to her every night
at the end of our night prayer,

throughout our convent,
singing the "Salve Regina,"

acknowledging her as our mother.

Unlike her other apparitions,

there's nothing like
the Guadalupe apparition,

because when she came here,
she came simply as a mother.

She didn't exhort the people
to prayer, to conversion,

to fasting.

That wasn't her message
to these people.

Her message
was a message of love.

She came with the assurances
of love,

that "I am here,
I am your mother."

- In my confessional
in Philadelphia...

I hear confessions
every Sunday night,

and right outside
my confessional

is a beautiful mosaic
of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

I can see through the door
the number of people

who stop at the shrine
of Our Lady of Guadalupe

and pray
as they prepare for confession,

and I think
that it's kind of symbolic

of the role
of Our Lady of Guadalupe

leading us further
into our Christian life

day by day,

asking us for constant
transformation, change,

and conversion.

- Our Lady of Guadalupe
has been referred to

as the Mother
of the Civilization of Love.

So what is the motherly message
of our Our Lady of Guadalupe?

It is one of concern,
of compassion, of love

for all members of society,

even the poorest,
even the outcast.

And so if the person is created
out of love for love,

only a civilization of love
is worthy of human dignity.

And this is fundamentally
the message

of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

For almost five centuries,

Our Lady of Guadalupe
has united bitter enemies,

endured as a symbol of hope,

and defied
scientific explanation,

becoming the patroness
of the Americas.

Today her presence is as real
as it was in 1531,

when Juan Diego first walked up
Tepeyac Hill

and encountered the woman
millions would come to call

"Our Mother."