No one has answered my question yet, so I'll ask it again:
Imagine that there hadn't ever been an apparition in Mexico; but, it just so happens that an Orthodox iconographer created this icon, would you have an issue with it being in an Orthodox church?
I've seen in an Orthodox Church (at least one), and only mildly have a problem with it:the icon doesn't have Christ in the icon, which is a problem for the canons of iconograpy. But I've been told that supposedly in the image she is pregnant, so...
The nimbus is also a problem I believe:I've never seen on surrounding anyone but Christ.
The moon and sun things is also a problem, but I understand that they are painted on, and are not original.
Uncanonical, yes, but if there's anything worth "baptizing" into the Church for missionary purposes, this would be it. Seriously, if Orthodox faithful in Mexico want to make any inroads, La Virgen has to be recognized, period. And why would this be a stretch?
But wouldn't that be...ahem...poaching? Just what Catholics are always accused of on this forum? Just askin'....
When our parish came back from Project Mexico, they shared that the couple for whom they build a house were shocked when the priest came to bless it, and immediately asked him to marry them: they had not seen a priest any where their village ever, and couldn't afford the fee if they had. (the priest didn't marry them because, they not being Orthodox, he had no authority to do so). So we're supposed to meet neglect with neglect?
It has always amused me to put the Vatican's pronouncements on, say, Russia, next to those on the Protestants in Latin America. The height of that was the Peruvian election of 1990 where the Vatican's bishops spoke out for Llosa, at best a lapsed Catholic who had an affair with his aunt (whom he dumped for a cousin), against the Vatican's loyal son Fujimori, because the latter had the support of the Pentacostals.
When the Orthodox try to recover properties they stole in the first place, or reconstitute hierachies they had established by force, in Mexico, then we can compare.