MEXICAN people speak off three untouchable national institutions the presidency, the army and the Virgin of Guadalupe. Recent events, however, prove that the hitherto sacrosanct Virgin has her doubters, among them the very abbot charged with promoting her shrine.
On any day of the week thousands of pilgrims enter the Basilica in the north of Mexico City, making their way on beaded knees to a statue of the Virgin. Meanwhile outside, hucksters hawk medals or offer photos taken beside life size cutouts of the Virgin to assure a safe journey or a positive exam result.
The shrine attracts 14 million visitors each year, requiring a moving platform to grant the faithful a glimpse of their object of devotion.
The Guadalupe tradition began in 1531 after a recently baptised Indian, Juan Diego, claimed to have seen a dark skinned apparition of the Virgin Mary. The apparition occurred, he claimed, at the site of a former shrine of an Aztec goddess on the northern outskirts of Mexico City.
The church authorities, anxious to consolidate Catholicism among the native population, built a temple where Indians immediately began to flock as the Virgin became the most important symbol of Mexican nationhood.
Last July, however, devotees got a shock when the text of an interview with the abbot of the basilica, Monsignor Guillermo Schullenburg (80), published in an Italian theology magazine, 30 Giorni, was translated into Spanish.
The abbot said that Juan Diego was a "symbol rather than a reality", sparking a church campaign for his resignation. The abbot resigned last weekend, claiming old age as the reason, after 33 years in charge of the shrine.
"How can someone say such stupid things and be in charge of the Basilica?" demanded Father Joaquin Escalante, legal adviser to the archdiocese and director of Mexico's Ecclesiastical Tribunal.
"The guy has a screw loose," commented Monsignor Enrique Salazar, head of the Guadalupan Studies Centre and co-ordinator of the campaign for the beatification of Juan Diego.
In an interview with The Irish Times, Monsignor Salazar detailed three documents which supposedly trace the life of Juan Diego and his relatives, although the genealogical trail fizzled out in the 18th century.
The Mexico City archdiocese has long been anxious to assume responsibility for the administration of the basilica, which has a multi million dollar annual income including land titles, jewels and cash left by deceased devotees to the Virgin. An internal audit has been called for, amid claims of corruption within the basilica's administration.
Mr Horacio Senties Rodriguez, a specialist on the subject of the Guadalupe Virgin, commented "The biggest mystery of the Guadalupe Basilica is not the appearance of the Virgin but the disappearance of the vast sums of money which Mexican people deposit in the sanctuary."
The image of the Virgin has travelled overseas, visiting Ireland, where the radical anti abortion group, Youth Defence, paraded the Guadalupe Virgin as a symbol of resistance during its campaign.
Father Escalante called for a nationwide crusade to restore the Virgin to her "rightful place" within the church, searching for a European analogy to the abbot's heresy. "It's like coming to Ireland and demanding to see St Patrick's birth certificate," he concluded.