[Buddha-l] Is Guanyin Catholic?

[Piya Tan]

Buddha-Lites,

On February 16, 2005 the Ricci Institute presented "Guadalupe and 
Guanyin: Images of
the Madonna in Mexico and China" as part of its ongoing public 
lecture series. At this
event, two keynote speakers, Ms. Lauren Arnold and Prof. Tom Lucas, 
S.J. invited the
audience to explore the impact of missionary Christianity on 
traditional cultures in pre-
modern Mexico and China through a visual art history presentation. As 
the edited
transcripts reveal, this often-turbulent spiritual contact with 
European Christian culture and
imagery resulted in the emergence of two very important ethnographic 
versions of the
Virgin Mary: Guadalupe and Guanyin. In the presentations below, 
Arnold and Lucas trace
the evolution of these compelling Marian images from medieval 
European prototypes
overlaid upon indigenous folk goddesses to fully developed Christian 
devotional images of
distinct and moving ethnicity.

http://www.usfca.edu/ricci/events/lucas.pdf

Is Arnold saying that Guanyin is a copy of Virgin Mary, or is it the 
other way around, or perhaps they arose independently?

Some local Guanyin Buddhists are somewhat confounded when they read 
this article.

Any expert or helpful comments on this?

Piya