On his recent visit to Mexico, Pope John Paul II canonized Juan Diego, Mexico’s first indigenous saint. According to tradition, in December 1531 Juan Diego, an Aztec, received a vision of a dark-skinned Virgin Mary. Thousands of enthusiastic Mexicans gathered outside of the Basilica of Guadalupe during the ceremony on July 31 during which the pope called on the country to “support the indigenous people in their legitimate aspirations.” Many Indian leaders were angered, however, by the official portrait of Juan Diego presented by the archdiocese of Mexico, an image of a light-skinned man with European features. While the Roman Catholic Church has a well-documented record of Juan Diego’s historical life, some skeptics claim that he never existed, except as a fiction used by the Spaniards during the conquest to win the Indians’ faith. Some people also characterized the canonization as a calculated attempt by the Church to stem the tide of conversions among indigenous people to evangelical Protestantism.
