Sainthood stirs pride and dissent in Mexico

Critics say Juan Diego is pictured as European-looking

Pope John Paul II is wheeled into Mexico City's Basilica of Guadalupe for a Mass to canonize Juan Diego.

MEXICO CITY, Mexico, (CNN) -- In life, he fostered peace. But images of Juan Diego displayed prominently for his canonization have spawned dissension in Mexico.

Pope John Paul II canonized Diego on Wednesday, making him the first indigenous saint from the Western Hemisphere. But the depiction of Diego in portrait and trinket images has angered some Mexicans.

As a result, the pope's visit to Latin America -- an effort to reach out to a sector of the Catholic Church many consider has been marginalized -- has stirred controversy.

Many Mexicans have complained about the portrayals of Diego as European-looking with a heavy beard when the Virgin Mary visited him in 1531. He has been universally described as an Indian.

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Anthropologists said that Indians who inhabited Mexico in the 1500s were genetically linked to Asians, making it impossible that Diego could have had thick facial hair.

"The beard that Indians could have grown then was much thinner," said Elio Masferrer, an anthropologist and historian.

But the Mexican Catholic Church contends such a position is racist. One of the bishops charged with promoting Diego's canonization said people should concentrate more on Diego's deeds than his physical appearance.

"Juan Diego was a human instrument that God used to achieve what was impossible," said Monsignor Jose Luis Guerrero. "Two cultures that were opposed, Spaniards and Indians, stopped killing themselves and became one."