Our Lady of Guadalupe and Pope Michael
There is an intimate connection between Pope Michael and Our Lady of Guadalupe. Will the Catholic Church Survive the Twentieth Century? devotes a whole chapter to considering the connection between Our Lady of Guadalupe and hte Papal Election it called for. Let us summarize here.How does the image of Guadalupe agree with Chapter 12 of Apocalypse?
--Our Lady is clothed with the sun; the moon is beneath her feet. (H.B. Kramer says the woman in Apocalypse 12:1 is the Church.)
--She is pregnant "...in labor to give birth." The black waistband beneath her folded hands is the maternity belt of the Aztecs.
--She appears to Juan in the Mexican desert.
--Juan's Indian name "Cuahtlatoatzin" translates into English as "he who speaks like the eagle." Is Juan the "St.
John" of the Americas?! The image is also born up by an angel with eagle's wings, although some are not convinced this was part of the original apparition.
--At the time of the apparition, the Americas were steeped in paganism; i.e., the dragon or serpent was worshipped. "...and the dragon stood before the woman." (Apoc. 12:4.)
--The very fact that the image was imprinted on a cloak made from cactus fibers is significant. She is imprinted on the very desert itself, and her image is part and parcel of it. To separate her from the cloak would be to destroy her image and the miraculous evidence of her appearance to Juan. This is a prefiguration, perhaps, of her patronage over the Americas as Our Lady of Guadalupe and over the U.S. specifically, as the Immaculate Conception.
Benedict XV pronounced: "Yes, the Virgin of Guadalupe is the pope's Patroness." (The Dark Virgin, p. 249.) There is one point that was not discussed in Will the Catholic Church Survive the Twentieth Century? Our Lady has 46 stars on her cape. Why 46? Why not the number 40, which occurs throught Sacred Scripture? Why not 12 which would strengthen the connection between this apparition and the woman crowned with a crown of 12 stars? After reading the prayer above and examining the significance of the apparition in Mexico and the Papal Election soon to be held, the authors became convinced that there was a major connection. Our Lady of Guadalupe, mystical rose, make intercession for holy Church, protect the Sovereign Pontiff, help all those who invoke thee in their necessities, and since thou art the ever Virgin Mary and Mother of the true God, obtain for us from thy most holy Sion the grace of keeping our faith, sweet hope in the midst the bitterness of life, burning charity and the precious gift of final perseverence. Amen.
Raccolta number 389, 500 days Indulgence, Pope Saint Pius X audience, August 15, 1908.)
