Editor’s Note: Matthew Chicoine interviewed Whitney Hetzel via phone call on May 23rd, 2025 and June 11th, 2025. Some of the questions have been rearranged and edited to provide the best reader experience without losing any integrity of the answers given.
What drew you personally to the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and how has working on this project deepened your own faith journey?
We at Good Catholic did our first series in 2017 and launched with Fatima. The response was excellent. We had a lot of conversations about which series we could do. We figured we would do the major Marian Apparitions. We realized how many layers and history to look at for Guadalupe. We shelved the project, finally the next year we decided to start the project.
I constantly hear from people who have a devotion to Guadalupe that Mary meets us in the little places. I myself am a convert and while it took me a bit to get to Mary, I have had a devotion to her ever since. Through this project I am learning that Mary is concerned about all the things in our lives (big AND small).
The tilma of Juan Diego has survived nearly 500 years without deterioration—what does the scientific analysis reveal about this miraculous preservation, and how do you present this evidence in the film?
It’s just fascinating. It’s almost too much to present. We are probably going to do seven episodes. Science looks at something and gives the validity of something. All science points to and answers the fact that Mary gave the tilma to Juan.
Even the Church is slow to accept miracles and test things. The thing that fascinates me the most is the cornea in her eye shows what she saw. The reflection in the eye (smaller than a grain of rice) was validated by a number of eye doctors to show that Mary was looking at Juan Diego and the bishop.
The constellations in the sky on her mantle are looking down from the galaxies on the tilma. And all the symbols on the mantle reflect certain things to the indigenous people. There’s so many things and they are equally fascinating.
There’s no signs of aging on the actual image of Our Lady. That’s incredible after all these years.
You’ve assembled incredible contributors like Fr. Spitzer and Jorge Arredondo from Harvard and Notre Dame. What unique insights do they bring about the theological and historical significance of Guadalupe that might surprise viewers?
Fr. Spitzer is a scientist and has a brilliant mind. He is also a priest, but he is coming from the perspective of a scientist. I didn’t think that I would be able to speak with a scientist because all of this has been studied before.
I don’t remember how I found Fr. Spitzer’s book on Guadalupe in our warehouse (he just wrote this last year).
We got in contact with Jorge from the authors of Guadalupe and the Flower World Prophecy. Jorge came from a linguistics perspective on the tilma. He gets into a lot of the history. We wanted to stay in line with the historical aspects and stay away from the sensational aspects. Even on the language side we wanted to cover our bases and Jorge is coming back in June for additional conversations about the Nahuatl language that Juan Diego spoke.
We wanted to look at the tilma from a factual and unbiased perspective. That’s why we look at it from the scientific and historical perspectives. It would be silly to add to the story of the tilma because there’s so many fascinating facts from the event itself.
Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to an indigenous man and spoke in his native language—how does the documentary explore the cultural bridge she created between indigenous peoples and the Catholic faith?
That’s a great question! Really, it’s a narrative story. The protagonist is Juan Diego. The Franciscan missionaries really did help bridge that gap. The conquest ended the human sacrifices in the Aztec culture. Truly in the ten years before Our Lady appeared the Franciscans tried to bridge and catechize. There was a language barrier that made it difficult to help in the conversion process. The bishop sent by King Charles (around 1521) was up against a lot, two steps forward five steps back. The conquistadors were poor examples of the faith. And some of the indigenous people didn’t want Catholicism to take root.
The bishop wrote a letter to King Charles and sent it in a lard barrel and got on his knees and asked for a sign. And shortly after Our Lady was sent to Juan Diego and also appeared to his sick uncle.
In today’s cultural climate, why do you believe the message of Guadalupe is particularly relevant?
I think it’s just as relevant today. Each age has a time of challenges. When you look at the stuff that is going on in the Church the last decade, people are leaving the Church. But you see a juxtaposition of there being a resurgence of the faith. I feel like there has been a sense of the faith waning but there’s the beginnings of a Catholic moment. We are nearing the 500th anniversary of the Blessed Virgin appearing to Juan Diego. I think we are living in an exciting time.
What do you hope Catholic families will take away from this series?
I think my strongest hope is that a renewed devotion and trust in our Lady will happen. In some ways it is in the small ways that Mary cares for us. And that Mary always, always, always leads us to Christ. I hope Catholic families truly embrace this. That we can always turn to Mary and be covered under Her mantle.
Mary is the connection to the humanity of Jesus and shows us that Jesus is still with us. When she appears, Mary helps us recognize that the Incarnation is important. Especially with Guadalupe, Mary left us something tangible with the tilma. People really do need a tangible sign that our Lord is not distant, that he is with us.
Beyond the Kickstarter campaign, what’s your vision for how this documentary can reach both practicing Catholics and those who might be encountering this miracle for the first time?
Thanks for this question, because this is one of our biggest challenges (and our greatest hope). Because of the tangibility of the tilma, we have this opportunity to reach people who aren’t Catholic. A lot of people (myself included) kind of look at Guadalupe as a Latin American devotion. But she appeared for all of us. And I hope that this series will show through the science of the tilma that this devotion is not culturally limited, it’s for the whole world.
In 1945, Pope Pius XII named Our Lady of Guadalupe as Patroness of the Americas (North and South). Saint Pope John Paul II confirmed this title in the late 90s.
What has been the most profound moment or discovery during your research and filming process that reinforced why this story needed to be told?
It’s one of the scientific elements of the tilma. Truly, the evidence of the eyes of our Lady having the curvature of being the same as a human eye. And the reflection in her eyes being what she saw (Juan Diego and the bishop). Father Spitzer reinforced this truth. These are signs that were interesting to me. In 1531, the people didn’t need scientific evidence to be convinced, but she knew that our modern world would need more of this scientific evidence. The fact that the tilma has survived for 500 years is a miracle.
My hope is that this will lead people to the truth of believing in God.
Where can my readers learn more about this project and support it?
Here’s our Kickstarter and you can visit Good Catholic to learn more about our other work.
About Whitney:
Whitney Hetzel’s most important job is her vocation as mother to nine children (ages 15–35) and grandmother to five (soon to be eight). Whitney is a convert to Catholicism. In college, she majored in journalism and English and received a Master’s degree in Psychology from Saint Louis University. She loves her job as a writer and content creator for Good Catholic—the digital arm of The Catholic Company.
Whitney is the Executive Producer of Not Made By Human Hands: The Miracle of Guadalupe and has enjoyed combining rigorous research, theology, and storytelling to bring the story of the miracle of Guadalupe to others. Her lifelong passion for writing, sparked early on with her blog 9 Kid Fitness, has evolved into a vocation of sharing faith-filled content that helps others live as authentic Christians in their daily lives.
