Pope Leo XIV celebrates Mass in St Peter’s Basilica for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, who awakens “in the inhabitants of America the joy of knowing they are loved by God.”

Read all

 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Leo XIV prayed for Mary's maternal intercession so that she would help nations avoid lies and hatred and instruct leaders to protect the dignity of all human life.

He also prayed that families find strength, young people find meaning and people of faith seek greater communion because "within the church, Mother, your children cannot be divided."

In his homily at Mass for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe in St. Peter's Basilica Dec. 12, Pope Leo also asked Mary to support him in his ministry as the successor of St. Peter and "grant that, trusting in your protection, we may advance ever more united, with Jesus and among ourselves, toward the eternal dwelling place that He has prepared for us and where you await us."

While it was his first Mass marking the Marian feast day at the Vatican as pope, as Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, he had already served as the main celebrant at the altar during the Dec. 12 Mass in 2024 and 2023 when he was prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. Pope Francis had presided over both of those Masses, but due to bouts of illness, he remained seated during the celebrations and gave the homily.

Pope Leo, who spent more than two decades as a missionary in Peru, gave the homily in Spanish and recalled how the Marian apparitions in 1531 in Tepeyac, Mexico, awakened "in the inhabitants of America the joy of knowing that they are loved by God." 

Devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe is deeply rooted in Latin America. According to tradition, Mary appeared to St. Juan Diego, an Indigenous Mexican, and left her pregnant image imprinted on his cloak. It was said she assured him in his native language not to be afraid because, "Am I not here, who am your Mother?" offering protection, health and safety in the folds of her mantle.

"It is the voice that echoes the promise of divine fidelity, the presence that sustains when life becomes unbearable," especially "amidst unceasing conflicts, injustices and pains that seek relief," Pope Leo said.

Her motherhood "makes us discover ourselves as children," and "as children, we will turn to her to ask" what must be done, especially "how to grow in faith when our strength fails and shadows grow," the pope said. Referring to her son, Jesus, she will "tenderly reply: 'Do whatever he tells you.'"

Pope Leo then prayed for Mary's intercession, asking that she "teach nations that want to be your children not to divide the world into irreconcilable factions, not to allow hatred to mark their history or lies to write their memory."

"Show them that authority must be exercised as service and not as domination," he said. "Instruct their leaders in their duty to safeguard the dignity of every person during all stages of their life," and may these people create places "where every person can feel welcome."

He prayed that Mary would accompany young people so they could find strength in Christ "to choose what is good and the courage to remain firm in the faith, even when the world pushes them in another direction." 

"Show them that your Son walks beside them. May nothing afflict their hearts so that they may fearlessly welcome God's plans," he said, praying that she also help keep young people safe "from the threats of crime, addiction and the danger of a meaningless life."

"Seek out, Mother, those who have strayed from the holy church," he said. "May your gaze reach them where ours cannot, break down the walls that separate us, and bring them back home with the power of your love."

Pope Leo then implored Mary to touch the hearts of those "who sow discord toward your Son's desire that 'they may all be one' and restore them to the charity that makes communion possible, for within the church, Mother, your children cannot be divided."

"Strengthen families," he prayed. "Following your example, may parents educate their children with tenderness and firmness, so that every home may be a school of faith."

He prayed that those who teach be inspired to share the truth "with the gentleness, precision and clarity that comes from the Gospel," and he prayed that the clergy and consecrated men and women find support and encouragement to be faithful, prayerful and revitalized.

"Holy Virgin, may we, like you, keep the Gospel in our hearts," he said, and help Christians understand "we are not the owners of this message, but, like St. Juan Diego, we are its simple servants."

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 12, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Almost 500 years after the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe — whose feast the Church celebrates Dec. 12 — the image of Our Lady has become the subject of several popular myths and legends, especially in Mexico, where she appeared. 

Father Eduardo Chávez, a priest of the Archdiocese of Mexico, was the postulator for Juan Diego’s canonization and is a renowned expert on the apparitions. He is also director of the Institute for Guadalupan Studies.

Speaking to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, in 2019, Chávez separated fact from fiction.

Is it true the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe has the same temperature as a human body?

“It’s logical that marble, stone, wood, and fabric have different temperatures,” he said. The image of the Virgin is formed on “a cloth made out of plant fibers, an agave called ‘ixotl.’ And it doesn’t have a temperature like a human being would have,” he said, dispelling a common rumor about the image.

Was the image painted or fabricated by human hands?

Chávez said the idea that the image was painted by human hands is “simply and plainly impossible,” because among other important details, St. Juan Diego’s tilma (cloak) “doesn’t even have any brushstrokes on it.”

“It’s imprinted on there, it’s a print as such,” he noted.

Chávez also pointed to the miraculous nature of the image, asking: “How is it possible for it to have lasted despite the fact that acid was accidentally spilled on it in 1784? How is it possible that after a bomb was set off underneath it on Nov. 14, 1921, that nothing happened to it?”

Do the Virgin’s eyes move?

The priest said that on social media “people are saying that if you shine a strong light, the eyes dilate and things like that. No such thing. They don’t move, they don’t dilate,” he said.

Chávez explained that “they’re misinterpreting something that an ophthalmologist, Enrique Graue, noted, namely that the eyes seem to be human, in the sense that they look like a photo of a human being, with the depth and reflection of a human eye.”

Does the Virgin of Guadalupe “float” on the mantilla?

Chávez was blunt: “The image doesn’t float”; rather, “it’s imprinted on the tilma.”

“Nor are there two or three images placed one on top of the other,” as some claim, he explained.

Is Our Lady of Guadalupe a Catholic adaptation of an Aztec goddess?

Some scholars have promoted the idea that the Virgin of Guadalupe is a Catholic adaptation of the Aztec goddess Coatlicue Tonantzin, who is a combination of a woman and serpents, and a symbol of fertility.

However, Chávez said that Our Lady of Guadalupe is not an adaptation of a goddess and has nothing to do with idolatry.

“She’s not called Coatlicue, which would be idolatry; she’s called Tonantzin, which isn’t any kind of idolatry but means ‘our venerable mother’ and, as the Indigenous affectionately say, ‘our dearest mother.’ It’s a title; it’s not idolatry.”

“The missionaries of the 16th century would never have made up a costume for a pagan goddess. That’s completely false,” he underscored.

Is there music hidden in the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe?

Based on mathematical analysis, Mexican accountant Fernando Ojeda discovered music embedded in the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Chávez explained.

Viewing the flowers and stars in the image of the Virgin as if they were musical notes, Ojeda outlined and found a melody.

Chávez said that analysts repeated the experiment with copies of paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries, “where stars and flowers are placed at the painter’s discretion,” but the only thing they produced was “noise, not harmony.”

“Only with the original does a perfect harmony emerge, with a symphonic arrangement. It is true — music comes forth from the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe,” he affirmed.

Was there a light miraculously projected on the womb of the Virgin of Guadalupe?

For Chávez, “it’s hard to know if it was a miracle at that time because we don’t know if it was a ray of light that happened to hit upon one of the nearby metal objects, projecting a light on her womb.” 

“What we do know is that she is the defender of life,” he said, pointing to “the simple fact that she has a dark ribbon over the womb, which means she’s pregnant and that therefore Jesus Christ Our Lord is in her immaculate womb.”

Can words be seen on the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe?

Responding to those who say they can see the word “peace” on the image, Chávez said: “I don’t see that anywhere.”

“She communicates with glyphs as the Indigenous did. And when it was by words she spoke in Náhuatl through Juan Diego who later translated,” he said. 

Did Bishop Juan de Zumárraga mistreat Juan Diego?

“The key, everything, turns on the bishop,” Chávez said, since “although the Virgin of Guadalupe chose a layman, spoke to a layman, expressed her message to a layman,” the shrine she asked for “was not going to be done without the authority of the bishop.”

Chávez said it was instead the servants who treated St. Juan Diego badly when he went to see Bishop Juan de Zumárraga. “It was the servants who left him outside,” he said.

The Franciscan bishop “never treated him badly, on the contrary; he treated him with affection,” as well as with “a lot of respect and much dignity,” Chávez said.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner, and published on CNA on Dec. 12, 2019. It has been updated.

The Catholic Bishops of Thailand and Cambodia voice their concern for the intensifying conflict along the two countries' shared border, as thousands of people have been displaced.

Read all

 

Fr. Roberto Pasolini, the Preacher of the Papal Household, delivers his second Advent meditation to Pope Leo XIV and members of the Roman Curia.

Read all

 

In an address to Italy's secret services, Pope Leo XIV calls for security rooted in ethics, warning that the pursuit of peace must never come at the expense of human dignity or truth.

Read all

 

In a message addressed to Latin American priests, seminarians, and religious men and women studying in Rome, Pope Leo XIV encourages them to remember their calling to follow Christ and strive to place God above everything.

Read all

 

As the Church celebrates the Jubilee of Prisoners, the head of the Catholic Mobilizing Network reflects on the dignity of those who are incarcerated and the role each of us has to honor that dignity as Pilgrims of Hope.

Read all

 

The Methodist-Roman Catholic International Commission releases an updated synthesis of the fruits of 60 years of theological dialogue, affirming that the two Churches converge much more than they diverge.

Read all

 

On 12 December, world-renowned conductor Riccardo Muti performs with the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra and the Choir of the Siena Cathedral “Guido Chigi Saracini” in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall. During the occasion, Muti will receive the prestigious "Ratzinger Prize," established in 2011, and awarded annually, with the Pope's approval, to eminent personalities in the field of Christian-inspired culture and art.

Read all