The Virgin of Guadalupe appears in Playboy Mexico

Playboy, the always controversial magazine, caught on with the Christmas spirit when it released the Mexican version of its December issue. Playboy Mexico's editor Gabriel Bauducco decided to put a nude Virgin Mary on its cover last Thursday. Mexican newspaper El Diario reported that the magazine has already sold over 80 thousand copies.

The magazine features model Maria Florencia Onori, who is naked except for a white cloth over her head and the headline "Te adoramos, Maria." (We adore you, Mary). El Diario states that in the magazine, the Mexican model is photographed eight different times with different religious clothes used by ecclesiastic authorities. In one of the pictures, the model appears to be posing next to a window church.

Playboy sources told EFE that photographer David Eisenberg's intentions were not to make the model look like Virgin Mary. However, the pictures are featured with an article titled "Bendita tu seas," which translates in English to "God bless you."

According to FoxNews, the magazine was purposely timed to be released before the Virgin of Guadalupe Day, a traditional Mexican holiday where the religious figure was said to have appeared to an indigenous boy in December 12, 1951. Since that time, the Virgin of Guadalupe is revered as "The patroness of the Americas" under the catholic faith.