BY JOHN RICE
 Associated Press

 MEXICO CITY -- Attempts to canonize Juan Diego, the Indian who reportedly saw
 the Virgin of Guadalupe, have led to a public spat inside Mexico's Roman Catholic
 Church.

 A letter to the Vatican objecting to sainthood caused an uproar this week in
 Mexico, where national identity is closely linked to veneration of the olive-skinned
 virgin who reportedly appeared to Juan Diego on Dec. 12, 1531, at Tepeyac in
 what is now northern Mexico City.

 The newspaper Reforma revealed Thursday that the former abbot of the Basilica of
 Guadalupe, Guillermo Schulenburg, had written the letter, which argued that
 evidence for Juan Diego's existence was unclear.

 The letter ``momentarily'' halted the process of canonization, admitted the Rev.
 Oscar Sanchez, the priest in charge of promoting Juan Diego's cause before the
 Vatican.

 ``It pains me to recognize that, but it's true,'' he said in an interview broadcast
 Friday by the Televisa television network.

 Sanchez said he believed the process would soon resume, arguing that
 Schulenburg and two other priests who signed the letter have ``zero credibility.
 . . . They have no authority.''

 And the chief church spokesman in Mexico, Monsignor Onesimo Cepeda, told
 Televisa that Juan Diego's eventual canonization ``is a given.''

 POPE'S SUPPORT

 Mexican church leaders had hoped the declaration of sainthood might occur
 during millennium celebrations next year. Pope John Paul II has strongly
 promoted veneration of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

 The new debate comes a week before celebrations in the broad plaza in front of
 the basilica that houses the image of the virgin on a cape of cactus fibers that,
 according to tradition, she gave to Juan Diego.

 Millions gather at the shrine each Dec. 12 amid songs, fireworks, prayer and
 Indian dancing.

 That dancing hints at one of the oldest objections to the cult of the virgin: Some
 clergymen at the time claimed that the story of her apparition was a device
 cooked up by local Indians to continue worshiping an Aztec goddess, Tonantzin --
 ``Our Mother'' -- whose shrine was located at Tepeyac.

 Critics note that church officials at the time virtually ignored the apparition and the
 first detailed historical accounts occurred about 120 years later.

 Defenders say they have found hard evidence for Juan Diego's existence, even
 locating his house in what is now Ecatepec, north of Mexico City.

 A TRADITION

 Whatever the history, the story of the virgin's appearance to Juan Diego has
 become Mexico's most important religious tradition. It helped the church convert
 the country's Indian population and has been a focus of faith for centuries.

 Mexican rebels fighting for independence from Spain went into battle behind
 images of the virgin. Even this year, presidential candidate Vicente Fox caused a
 controversy by displaying portraits of the virgin during campaign appearances,
 breaking a modern taboo about mixing religion and politics.

 Schulenburg, 83, has long been a thorn in the side of those promoting a literal
 belief in the Guadalupe story. For 30 years, he oversaw the shrine to the virgin.

 In a 1995 interview with the Jesuit magazine Ixtus, Schulenburg said Juan Diego
 ``is a symbol, not a reality,'' and he called Juan Diego's 1990 beatification by
 Pope John Paul II ``recognition of a cult. It is not recognition of the physical, real
 existence of a person.''

                      Copyright 1999 Miami Herald