Via Ben Smith, the Catholic News Agency reported Friday on a cringe-inducing gaffe Hillary Clinton committed in Mexico:
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!"
A friend points out that this makes Clinton's decision to wear a Catholic devotional bracelet during Pennsylvania primary all the more shameless.
Update: Many folks tell me that they, too, didn't know Catholic belief about the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and think it's a bit much to call Clinton's gaffe cringe-inducing. The story of Our Lady of Guadalupe may not be common knowledge among non-Catholics, but you'd think the Secretary of State would receive at least a Wikipedia-level briefing about important religious, cultural, and historic sites she sees, so as to avoid offending the local population.
I also didn't know what the Russian word for "reset" was, but when the State Department incorrectly translated it, that was pretty embarrassing.
