March 29, 2009

Secretary Clinton Asks A Good Question

However, Secretary Clinton is a Methodist and may well be forgiven by Catholics for not knowing the official RCC story -- the image appeared miraculously on this guy's cloak one day on a hill near Mexico City after he saw an apparition of a sixteen-year-old girl speaking the native language (not Aramaic, which the real Mary would have spoken) and three recently-cut Castilian roses despite its being in the middle of winter. Allegedly, the cloak hasn't faded or deteriorated in any way for over 300 years.

Because the official line is obviously nonsense. If God were going to paint something, is that really the quality of image He would produce? Mary looks a little bit, well, mestizo to my eyes. And indeed, the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe has served as a symbol of Mexican Catholicism ever since -- and in many cases, as a nationalistic symbol for Mexico itself; armies have fought under flags bearing the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

None of which makes the myth underlying the image in the least bit credible.

Amusingly, as the article notes, Secretary Clinton placed flowers at the altar of Our Lady of Guadalupe the same day that she was traveling to accept the Margaret Sanger Award.

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