The Rector of the Basilica of Guadalupe, Canon Priest Efraín Hernández Díaz, was removed from his post after fellow canon priests accused him of jeopardizing the shrine’s legal standing, mismanaging assets, and removing confidential documents such as bank statements and contracts.
His dismissal marks one of the most controversial episodes at Tepeyac in the last three decades—since the departure of the last abbot, Guillermo Schulenburg, who denied the existence of Juan Diego in an exclusive 1996 interview with *Excélsior*. On Sunday, July 12, Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes formally announced Hernández Díaz’s removal in a letter, following an agreement with the Guadalupe Chapter and the Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM).
For the past eleven months—since August 2025—he had stopped attending meetings of the Guadalupe Chapter, the governing body of canon priests responsible for the religious sites at Tepeyac. The former rector is currently the subject of a canonical investigation by the Archdiocese and an audit conducted by the consulting firm Deloitte.
“The canonical investigation into Father Efraín began in early October. Salvador González Morales—then Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Mexico and now the Bishop of Cancún-Chetumal—issued precautionary measures against the Rector of the Basilica of Guadalupe,” explained Guillermo Gazanini Espinoza, an analyst with the Catholic Multimedia Center (CCM), in an interview.
These measures included his temporary suspension from the Chapter. “He was also stripped of all official authority within the Basilica of Guadalupe,” the specialist noted. According to Gazanini Espinoza, the decision regarding the permanent departure of the Rector of the Basilica of Guadalupe stemmed from the meeting at the Vatican between Cardinal Carlos Aguiar and Pope Leo XIV on Thursday, June 25.
