It must be apocryphal

Did Mrs. Clinton really ask the Mexican priest who was showing her the cloak with the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, “Who painted it?”

John at Powerline finds the story hard to believe, and so do I. After all, even if Mrs. Clinton had been entirely ignorant of the famous and inspiring story of Our Lady of Guadalupe prior to her visit to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe (which seems unlikely), the priest in the course of telling Mrs. Clinton about the cloak would have mentioned its miraculous provenance.

* * *

Here is an account from the Catholic News Agency. It doesn’t say that the rector of the Basilica explained the cloak to Mrs. Clinton, but only he showed it to her, and that after “observing” it for a while, she asked, “Who painted it?” Would the rector have shown her the cloak without speaking about its history? Unlikely. Therefore I still don’t believe that she said what she is reported to have said.

Hillary Clinton leaves flowers for Our Lady of Guadalupe, asks ‘Who painted it?’

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 opened and the image’s lack of decay.

Mrs. Clinton was received on Thursday at 8:15 a.m. by the rector of the Basilica, Msgr. Diego Monroy.

Msgr. Monroy took Mrs. Clinton to the famous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which had been previously lowered from its usual altar for the occasion.

After observing it for a while, Mrs. Clinton asked “who painted it?” to which Msgr. Monroy responded “God!”

Clinton then told Msgr. Monroy that she had previously visited the old Basilica in 1979, when the new one was still under construction.

After placing a bouquet of white flowers by the image, Mrs. Clinton went to the quemador –the open air area at the Basilica where the faithful light candles- and lit a green candle.

Leaving the basilica half an hour later, Mrs. Clinton told some of the Mexicans gathered outside to greet her, “you have a marvelous virgin!”

This evening Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to receive the highest award given by Planned Parenthood Federation of America—the Margaret Sanger Award, named for the organization’s founder, a noted eugenicist. The award will be presented at a gala event in Houston, Texas.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 29, 2009 02:08 AM | Send