....and a Cautious Response from Authorities

Caution Urged Regarding Guadalupe Report....No Basis for Certainty That Event Occurred, Official Says

MEXICO CITY, MAY 31, 2007 (Zenit.org).-

An Internet presentation is claiming that the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe moved during a Mass for aborted children, but a Church leader urged caution about the claims."Miracle in the Basilica of Guadalupe" has been widely distributed on the Internet. It claims that during a Mass in the basilica in Mexico City, the faithful saw the image of Mary move and a light came from her womb. Some claim to have photographs of the image.

Monsignor José Luis Guerrero Rosado, canon of the basilica and director of the Superior Institute of Guadalupan Studies, spoke of the presentation."It is moving and respectable that devoted people see signs of the divine in daily life, given that even the nature that surrounds us speaks to us of God and of his love for us," he said. "However, in his providence it is unusual, and not the fruit of his desire, that supernatural signs abound. We recall that Jesus defines as blessed 'those who have not seen and have believed.'"

Unconfirmed

"The apparition of Mary Most Holy on Tepeyac was a marvelous miracle, and in the moral order we can see that the Lord continues to carry out innumerable miracles, through the intercession of his Mother," said Monsignor Rosado. But, he added: "The Church is extremely cautious in approving physical miracles.

"Supposing that a natural explanation cannot be found for the light seen in the photographs, all that should be derived from this is that an inexplicable light appeared. "The monsignor continued, referring to the Internet statement, "This does not provide a basis for certainty that 'the image of the Madonna began to move as if to make room for a bright light that emanated from her womb with a ray and divine ring in the form of a human embryo, becoming present before our eyes, the unborn Christ.'"

We reiterate that it is legitimate and touching that one would think God was speaking to them in that way, but it is not, and cannot be, an official confirmation of the Catholic Church, nor of the Archdiocese of Mexico City, and not even of the authorities of the Basilica of Guadalupe."

News from the Guadalupana

From Spirit Daily:

STRANGE LIGHT CLAIMED IN GUADALUPE IMAGE AFTER MEXICO CITY OKAYED ABORTION

An apparent communique from Dr. Jean-Pierre Dickès, president of the Catholic Association for Doctors, Nurses and Health Professionals, reports what may have been an unusual luminosity in the famed image of Mary at the Shrine of Guadalupe in Mexico City immediately after that city legalized abortion.

The event is said to have occurred on April 24 -- the day legislators okayed termination of the unborn up to twelve weeks. However, the similarity to photos taken in 1999 by an American raises questions that require further investigation for authenticity and a check of dates.
"At the end of the Mass, which was offered for the aborted children, the assistant of the congregation was asking herself what the Most Holy Virgin of Guadalupe was demanding of her," reported Father Luis Matos, superior of La Communauté des Béatitudes.

"While many of the faithful were taking photographs of the [tilma] of Tepeyac, exposed and venerated in the Basilica and at the foot of which the crowd of pilgrims filed past on a moving carpet, the image of the Virgin began to erase itself, to give place to an intense light which emanated from her abdomen, constituting a brilliant halo having the form of an embryo. With a centering and an important enlargement it is possible to appreciate the position of the light which truly comes from the stomach of the Holy Virgin and is not a reflection, nor an artifact."
We offer it for your discernment.

The image materialized on the cactus or "agave" cloak of a Mexican peasant in 1531 and was responsible for the conversion of twelve million Indians. It is now largely used as a symbol of "pro-life" causes in the Americas because Mary appears pregnant in the image, which has been proven miraculous.

"An engineer, Luis Girault, who has studied the picture thus produced, has confirmed the authenticity of the negative, and has been able to specify that it had not been either modified nor altered, by superimposition of another image for example," stated the priest. "He discovered that the image (the picture produced) does not come from any reflection, but literally comes from the inside of the image of the Virgin. The produced light is very white, pure and intense, different from habitual photographic lights produced by flashes. This light is encircled with a halo and appears to float inside the abdomen of the Virgin. This halo has the form and measurements of an embryo. In effect if we again examine more precisely this picture by making it turn in a sagittal plan, we perceive inside the halo some areas of shade that have the characteristics of a human embryo in the maternal womb."

[ACIM Press Release - May 1, 2007 - FRANCE]
[http://www.acimps.org/content/view/88/2/]

Guadalupana, Strong Protector

December 12th is the Feast of Mary under the title "Our Lady of Guadalupe", the patron of the Americas who appeared to St. Juan Diego in the 16th century. As a sign to the unbelieving Spanish Bishop of Mexico to whom Juan was sent, the Aztec peasant's tilma, or robe, was imprinted miraculously with the image of Mary as a young peasant girl, but with many of the details mentioned in Chapter 12 of Revelation. Tests of the tilma have failed either to explain the origin of the image, or to account for its continued existence on a fibrous material which under normal conditions decomposes within 5o-60 years.

The icongraphy of the image is unmistakeably Aztecan. The Virgin is a young native girl rather than a Caucasian European. She wears the traditional brown belt only worn by those who have previously given birth. She herself looks pregnant again, as if about to bear anew her children, the Aztec peoples who converted following Her appearance. She is surrounded by the rays of the sun, the traditonal Aztec Sun god, and treads underfoot the moon, another Aztec diety. Her blue robe is decorated with stars, the third presence in the Aztecan pantheon.

Yet, this young girl is not a goddess herself. Her head is bowed in prayer, humbly asking God to bless Her people. What a strong image of both mercy and justice, of solidarity and intercession. She prays for all of us in the Americas, asking again the divine assistance with the single phrase "Fiat!" Let it be done... according to Your Word, oh God. Her yes to God which leads to the new creation echoes God's Word at the first creation, "Let it be done." So, the Guadalupana, like all the rest of us who are redeemed by Christ, has become a created co-creator.

She and we are called to create a New World which mirrors both God's justice and His love and mercy. How far we have to go before her prayers are answered.

God of power and mercy,

You blessed the Americas at Tepeyac

with the presence of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe.

May Her prayers help all men and women

to accept each other as brothers and sisters.

Through Your justice present in our hearts

may Your peace reign in this world.