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GUNMEN have kidnapped the sole police officer in a northern Mexican town, a 28-year-old woman working alone after her colleagues resigned or were killed in the region's brutal drug war. A dozen unidentified gunmen set Erika Gandara's home ablaze last week and torched two cars parked outside before abducting her, the Chihuahua state prosecutor's office. Guadalupe, the town of 9000 inhabitants she helped keep safe, is located just off the US-Mexico border in the heart of one of the country's most violent regions where 3100 people were killed this year alone. In late November, unidentified gunmen killed another female crime...

St. Juan Diego's tilma: "completely outside" science Monday August 24, 2009 Take a look: A physicist who has spent years researching the tilma bearing the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is affirming that there is no scientific explanation for the phenomenon. Adolfo Orozco stated this in a presentation given at an International Marian Congress that took place Aug. 6-8 in Phoenix. The congress, sponsored by the Knights of Columbus, the Phoenix Diocese and the Institute of Guadalupan Studies, was dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Orozco gave a presentation on the image of the Virgin imprinted on St. Juan...

Science Sees What Mary Saw From Juan Diego’s TilmaZENITDigital technology is giving new leads for understanding a phenomenon that continues to puzzle science: the mysterious eyes of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Digital technology is giving new leads for understanding a phenomenon that continues to puzzle science: the mysterious eyes of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The image, imprinted on the tilma of a l6th-century peasant, led millions of indigenous Indians in Mexico to convert to the Catholic faith. Earlier this month in Rome, results of research into the famed image were discussed by engineer José...

Guadalupe: A Living ImageSun. September 26 at 10 PM ET, Tue. September 28 at 1 PM ET & Thu. September 30 at 5 AM ET Msgr. Eduardo Chavez, postulator of the cause for canonization of St. Juan Diego, discusses the importance of the Nican Mopohua, a document that presents the original authentic history of the Miracle of Guadalupe. Narrative of the apparition of the Virgin of GuadalupeAppearance of the Virgin of Guadalupe The Nican Mopohua is considered a kind of “gospel” of Mexico, and reports on how the Virgin of Guadalupe in 1531, about ten years after the conquest of...

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - He may have sanded his jagged edge, but Joe Eszterhas still, apparently, has the basic instinct. The polarizing scribe, who hasn't had a film released theatrically in the U.S. in more than a decade, has signed on to a project about the mystical sighting of a virgin in 16th century Mexico. Eszterhas will write the screenplay about the virgin of Guadalupe, a vision that appeared to the Aztec peasant Juan Diego in 1531. While some scholars question Diego's existence, the event is credited with helping to spread Catholicism at a time of economic and social...

Dr. Adolfo Orozco at the International Marian Congress on Our Lady of Guadalupe in Glendale, Arizona. Phoenix, Ariz., Aug 7, 2009 / 04:10 pm (CNA).- Researcher and physicist Dr. Aldofo Orozco told participants at the International Marian Congress on Our Lady of Guadalupe that there is no scientific explanation for the 478 years of high quality-preservation of the Tilma or for the miracles that have occurred to ensure its preservation.Dr. Orozco began his talk by confirming that the conservation of the Tilma, the cloak of St. Juan Diego on which Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared 478 years ago, “is...

Congressmen Chris Smith Washington D.C., Apr 2, 2009 / 01:25 pm (CNA).- In an impassionate address to the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Congressmen Chris Smith (R-NJ,) argued that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the speech delivered immediately after, in Houston, Texas, during Planned Parenthood’s Margaret Sanger Award  were completely  inexcusable. Smith said that Clinton’s visit to the Catholic Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, where she presented a bouquet of flowers on behalf of the American people, was “a very nice gesture.” But the gesture...

Secretary of State Clinton expresses admiration for Margaret Sanger and confusion about Our Lady of Guadalupe. A day before receiving the Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s highest honor – the “Margaret Sanger Award” – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton paid a visit to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, leaving a bouquet of white flowers “on behalf of the American people,” and asking the basilica’s rector, “Who painted it?”

A classic gaffe, as reported by the Catholic News Agency and a couple of Mexican papers, out of Mexico City Friday: During her recent visit to Mexico, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made an unexpected stop at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and left a bouquet of white flowers “on behalf of the American people,” after asking who painted the famous image. The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was miraculously imprinted by Mary on the tilma, or cloak, of St. Juan Diego in 1531. The image has numerous unexplainable phenomena, such as the appearance on Mary’s...

Thus far, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made two diplomatic blunders during her visit to Mexico that the U.S. Old Media are shockingly uninterested in highlighting. One was a policy blunder and the other a cultural/religious one. Clinton's first mistake was in imagining she is still a Senator that can make pronouncements on pending laws and policy plans instead of a mere envoy of the president, a mouth piece that hasn't the same freedom to invent policy prescriptions and laws that a Senator does. Last week, Clinton told Mexican officials that "we" -- as in the U.S. government --...

A day before receiving the Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s highest honor – the “Margaret Sanger Award” – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton paid a visit to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, leaving a bouquet of white flowers “on behalf of the American people,” and asking the basilica’s rector, “Who painted it?” In response to Clinton’s question, basilica rector Msgr. Diego Monroy responded, “God!” The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was miraculously imprinted by Mary on the cloak of St. Juan Diego in 1531. According to a report from Catholic News Agency, Msgr....

Mexico City, Mexico, Mar 27, 2009 / 04:59 pm (CNA).- During her recent visit to Mexico, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made an unexpected stop at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and left a bouquet of white flowers “on behalf of the American people,” after asking who painted the famous image. The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was miraculously imprinted by Mary on the tilma, or cloak, of St. Juan Diego in 1531. The image has numerous unexplainable phenomena, such as the appearance on Mary’s eyes of those present in the room when the tilma was...

Congress, Festival for Our Lady of Guadalupe   Events will take place Aug. 6 -8 in Phoenix following Supreme Convention. The Knights of Columbus will hold its First International Marian Congress on Our Lady of Guadalupe from August 6-8, 2009, following the organization’s 127th annual convention in Phoenix.  The Congress will conclude with a Guadalupe Festival at Jobing.com Arena on August 8. Nearly 20,000 attendees are expected from throughout the United States and from Mexico.Co-sponsored by the Knights of Columbus, the Diocese of Phoenix, the Archdiocese of Mexico City and the Center for Guadalupan Studies, the Congress will be held at...

     Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared in Mexico as the pregnant Mother of God to Saint Juan Diego, a Chicemeca Indian, on December 9, 10 and 12, 1531. She left a Miraculous Image of her appearance on his cactus fiber cloak, or "tilma", which still exists today for all to see in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.       Our Lady came to offer faith, hope and consolation to the oppressed natives of Mexico and to reconcile then with their Spanish rulers.  She put an end to the bloody human sacrifice of the Aztecs and converted nine million natives...

This is indeed a difficult blog to write. Not only because my favorite book on the subject went missing, but I believe, if I write this story just right, millions of souls will convert to Christ ...

Ok, first off, I really don't write vanities, I even searched for help on how to write them so I am trying not to do this wrong. Also this is not a topic that one needs to get wrapped up about. Just mere questions. This first one is just a point of information but it is not easily answered. 1. Has there ever been a feast day for the Holy Lance or Holy Spear (and Nails even I've believed I have also seen) (the spear meaning the one that pierced the side of Our Savior crucified)? I read about this...

ST. JUDE ELECTION NOVENA We have an opportunity as Catholics to elect a President and Vice-President whose political platform is largely favorable to and supportive of Catholic moral and social teaching, especially on the pre-eminent Catholic moral issue of the right to life, and to keep out of power a President and Vice-President whose political platform is largely hostile to Catholic moral and social teaching, especially with regard to the respect and protection of all life from conception to natural death. Let us pray a nine day novena to St. Jude, the patron of hopeless causes, for John McCain and...

A new chapter in the life of the... Catholic church in the Coulee Region begins today, the first day the Shrine Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe is open to the public. Nine years after Archbishop Raymond Burke, former bishop of the La Crosse Diocese, first announced plans for the shrine, he dedicated the church at a Mass on Thursday that lasted more than three hours. Now... the success of the shrine lies largely in how the public, locally and around the world, receives the site Burke calls a place of pilgrimage.... Corinne Dempsey, an associate professor of religious studies...

The apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe which occurred in Mexico in 1531 were an evangelization experience unsurpassed in all of Church history with the possible exception of the Day of Pentecost. December 12th marks the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, who I believe can be titled, Patroness of the Church Militant. I say this because, in that experience, She brought together all of the elements of a spiritual army that conquered what was then a total culture of death; if She could overcome the evil forces that directed the massacre of thousands of innocent human beings in 16th...

Mark Armstrong  Other Articles by Mark ArmstrongPrinter Friendly Version   The Story of Guadalupe: Hope for Our Violent World December 12, 2006 Just four days ago we celebrated the feast of the Immaculate Conception. On that day, Mel Gibson released his epic movie, Apocalypto. Without giving away too much of the plot, I believe we can hope that many eyes are opened by this movie's portrayal of the evil of human sacrifices practiced by the Aztecs and other Indian cultures in what would become Mexico. The movie provides the historical backdrop of today's Marian celebration: the Memorial of Our...