A Pro-Life Reflection on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
From Laura Strietmann, Executive Director of Cincinnati Right to Life
When Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared on December 12, 1531, the culture she entered was marked by death. An estimated 20,000 human sacrifices were offered each year, and in one Aztec pyramid feast alone, nearly 80,000 people were sacrificed over four days. These gruesome acts were offered to idols and false gods that demanded blood.
Into this darkness came a Mother—pregnant with Life. We know she was pregnant because of the black sash around her waist, a clear sign of pregnancy in indigenous culture. Our Lady chose not a ruler or priest, but a simple indigenous man, Juan Diego, to carry her message of life and hope.
In the quiet area of Tepeyac outside Mexico City, Mary asked Juan Diego to go to the bishop and request that a church be built in her honor. When the bishop asked for a sign, Our Lady instructed Juan Diego to gather miraculous roses blooming on the barren hill of Tepeyac in winter. When Juan Diego opened his tilma before the bishop, the roses fell to the floor—and the miraculous image image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was revealed, a lasting sign of her maternal presence.
Because of her loving intervention, hearts were converted. Nearly 10 million people embraced the faith within ten years—the largest mass conversion in human history. A culture rooted in death was transformed into a culture open to life.
The original Tilma is displayed in Mexico for tens of millions to venerate each year. Completely preserved, after almost 500 years, the miracle still stands as a sign for the miracles that are still to come.
Today, the stone pyramids are gone—but human sacrifice remains.
Here in Ohio, especially southwest Ohio, blood continues to flow through human sacrifice, hidden behind closed doors in dark buildings that sell death over life. These places serve the same false god—one that rejects the dignity of the unborn and the sacred role of mothers.
Yet miracles still happen. This year alone, more than 40 Planned Parenthood facilities have closed nationwide, including four in Ohio. The founding Margaret Sanger Center in New York is closed, and the former mega–death center in Houston—modeled after an Aztec shrine—has been shut down for good. These signs of change remind us that darkness does not prevail forever and that conversion is still possible.
This gives us real hope for Ohio.
Our Lady of Guadalupe now asks each one of us to respond. She calls us to defend life, support mothers, and help transform our culture once again—beginning where we live.
May we, like Juan Diego, answer with humility and courage, trusting that God still changes history through faithful obedience.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of the Unborn, pray for us.