Within the framework of the 26th International Mariological Marian Congress, held at the Auditorium Antonianum in Rome from September 3 to 6, the priest doctor Eduardo Agustín Aguilar Navarro, advisor to the Presidency of the Mexican Episcopal Conference and coordinator of the Intercontinental Guadalupan Novena, offered a highlighted intervention during the dialogue table dedicated to «Guadalupe: Pontifical Commission for Latin America». His presentation, titled “Guadalupe: from the theology of encounter to contemporary evangelizing praxis”, served as an introduction emphasizing the Guadalupan event as a permanent paradigm of inculturated evangelization, relevant to the current challenges of the Church.
The congress, organized by the Pontifical Marian Academy Internationalis under the general theme «Jubilee and Synodality: a Church with a Marian face and practice», brought together theologians, cardinals, and experts from around the world to reflect on Mary's role in contemporary ecclesial life.
Among the notable participants were Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, who spoke of Mary as a model of the synodal Church; Professor Valerija Nedjeljka Kovač, secretary of the Croatian Mariological Institute, who explored the prophetic Marian path of hope; and Professor Gloria Falcão Dodd, president of the Mariological Society of America, who addressed mariology at the service of synodality. Other key speakers included Monsignor Antonio Staglianò, president of the Pontifical Academy of Theology, and Professor Lúcia Pedrosa de Pádua, president of the Brazilian Association of Mariology.
With vast experience in Mexican pastoral care and his leadership in preparing for the V Centenary of the Guadalupan apparitions in 2031, Aguilar Navarro situated his intervention within the horizon of the Intercontinental Guadalupan Novena. This initiative, promoted from Mexico, seeks not only to commemorate the historical event of 1531 but to update its message of hope and intercultural dialogue for a Church «on the move» as proposed by Pope Francis.
The priest highlighted that the encounter between the Virgin of Guadalupe and Juan Diego on Tepeyac transcends its historical context to become a methodological model. Through eight thematic sections, he explored the theology of encounter in the Nican Mopohua, the Nahuatl account of the apparitions, identifying three revolutionary elements: the inversion of communicative paradigms when Mary speaks in Nahuatl and appears in an indigenous sacred place; the pedagogy of tenderness, through patient dialogue that respects the other's timing; and the intercultural synthesis in the sign of Juan Diego's Tilma, a divine-human code that unites Nahua and Christian symbols without nullifying any tradition.
Father Aguilar emphasized that Guadalupe proposes a theological epistemology from the margins, where the poor, embodied in Juan Diego, evangelizes the Church, anticipating concepts such as the preferential option for the poor and synodality. Quoting Pope Francis in the bull Spes Non Confundit, he described Guadalupe as a «revolutionary message of hope» that deconstructs traditional evangelizing schemes.
A key section addressed the impact of Guadalupe on the Latin American Church, documenting its expansion from Argentina (where Pope Francis, as archbishop of Buenos Aires, saw it as a «living mystery») to Brazil (where theologian Ivone Gebara interprets it as a mariology of the Global South), Colombia, Bolivia (in dialogue with Copacabana), Chile, and the Caribbean. This diffusion is not mere devotion but a «perfect inculturation of the Gospel», as Leonardo Boff called it.
In the analysis of the Nican Mopohua, he highlighted its profound simplicity: the central message «Am I not here, I who am your mother?» reformulates the kerygma in a maternal key, prioritizing love over doctrine. The Intercontinental Novena, with initiatives like «One Tilma, One Heart», presents itself as a pastoral laboratory for 2031, fostering networks of animators and missionaries, «little Juan Diegos», who translate the miracle into concrete praxis: intercultural dialogue, ecclesiology from the peripheries, and spirituality of hope.
Facing current challenges such as secularization and pluralism, Aguilar proposed a «Guadalupan evangelizing praxis» that responds with tenderness and synodality, citing theologians like Rafael Luciani and Roberto Goizueta. He concluded by inviting not abstract dialogue, but transformative dialogue, recalling the words of the Virgin and the testimony of the blessed José Sánchez del Río. He invited transformative dialogue, citing the blessed José Sánchez del Río and remembering the words of the Virgin as the key to an evangelization that accompanies and celebrates diversity as a manifestation of the Spirit.
The table, coordinated by the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, continued with other interventions such as that of Dr. Eduardo Chávez, director of the Higher Institute of Guadalupan Studies, who addressed the theme «The meaning of Guadalupe for a new evangelization», delving into its missionary relevance.
The following day, September 5, the table continued with the introduction by Father Dr. Stefano Cecchin, president of the Pontifical Marian Academy Internationalis. Dr. David Ojeda, doctor at the same institute in Mérida (Mexico), presented «The image of Guadalupe: the reading of a divine-human code», analyzing the symbols of the Tilma. Finally, Father Dr. Leandro Chitarroni (Bolivia-Argentina) explored «Our Lady of Copacabana and Guadalupe», highlighting the intercultural connections between indigenous devotions.
Father Aguilar Navarro's intervention enriched the mariological debate by aligning it with the Guadalupan message in connection with the 2025 Jubilee and the Church's synodal process, the theology of encounter that offers concrete hope, preparing the ground for the V Centenary and reminding us that, in the words of the Virgin, the mother is always present in the most difficult and hopeful moments of history.
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