His unprecedented four-year popularity has been sustained by an incredible economic growth which has been at eight percent each year, mostly due to increases in prices of Argentinean commodities in the world market, a situation no different than the one Juan Domingo PerC3n experienced during the post World War II years.
In 2002, the John Paul II canonized the first Native American saint, Juan Diego, a 15th century Indian whose vision of the Virgin of Guadalupe is emblematic of the Catholic faith in Mexico.