John Paul II To Be Beautified, Abuelitas Rejoice

Mexican Catholics, especially the ones that love the Virgen de Guadalupe, love Pope John Paul II — who is going to be beatification on May 1. This means that he is blessed and the Church allows him to be publicly venerated but he needs to be responsible for one more miracle before becoming a saint.

Back to the Virgen’s motherly embrace of the former Pope. I do not claim to understand these things, I simply report them as I observe them. I remember when I first moved to Monterrey in 2003 and began to see these images around, I was really puzzled. My only question was “Why?”

I refer, of course, to the image of the Virgen de Guadalupe cradling Pope John Paul II in her arms. I’ve seen that picture all over the place — including in Mexico, Texas, the border, in California. To this day, having seen it dozens of times, it still has very little meaning to me. I just don’t understand what it’s supposed to mean.

What I do know is that, for whatever reason, Pope John Paul II must have held a very special place in Mexican Catholics’ hearts for the image not only to be created, but distributed, re-created (read: pirated) and to have not caused a scandal. Have you seen this image before? How do you interpret it?