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Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Pope Francis spoke this afternoon about the Virgin of Guadalupe as a woman, a mother, and a “mestiza”, a Métis woman, during the celebration dedicated to her, in St Peter’s Basilica, with people singing and dressed in the styles of Latin America whose patron saint she is.

In his homily, delivered in Spanish without a text, Francis said that Mary was a woman who knew who she was and, for that reason, she was also a disciple faithful to her Son, the only Redeemer.

“She never sought to take something from her son for herself; she never presented herself as a co-redeemer, [only] as a disciple. Did some Holy Father say that the discipleship is more important than motherhood? No, I did not say that.

“Mary never took anything for herself that belonged to her son, because she was a mother, gave life, in the fullness of time, as we heard from the child born from a woman."

“Mary is our mother, mother of our peoples, mother of the Church, but even more so mother of our hearts and souls.”

"Some Holy Father might say that what is said about Mary can also be said about the Church, and somehow, about our soul, since the Church is female and our soul has the capacity of receiving the Grace of God,  and in a certain sense the Fathers saw it as female. We cannot envisage the Church without this Marian principle””

Hence, the pontiff warned not to reduce the role of women in the Church to certain functions, that is to the tasks they perform, for such an attitude belittles women’s nature and calling and leaves us stranded. Women in the Church go further and their maternal character turns the whole Church into "Holy Mother Church".

Mary is also a Mestiza, a Métis woman. "She sought to be Métis, [ethnically] mixed, and not only with Juan Diego.” She “became Métis to be everyone’s mother, for she 'mixed’ God and this is the great mystery: Mary the Métis mother, who made God, truly God and truly man.”