Modernist, synodalist apologia for Pachamama veneration
Defending Pope Leo: He is not an idolater nor did he worship Pachamama.
The young missionary Robert Prevost did indeed participate in this congress on ecology and theology in 1995, and during a ceremony honoring Mother Earth, he knelt before her. I cannot see any worship of Pachamama as a goddess, neither on the part of Prevost nor on the part of any of the attendees.
We see an interreligious act, where a representative of Andean culture makes a payment to the earth, an offering, and engages in dialogue with the earth. Other people, including Augustinian priests, attend this ceremony, which is part of Andean culture. Respecting the earth as a "being with a soul" still recognizes it as a creature of God. Pachamama is the earth, or rather, this soul of the earth. Therefore, we can speak to her, as we speak to the Saints. We can kneel before her as we do before the Saints, as long as we see her as a creature and not as a Goddess. Intention is what matters. The gesture of prayer is not automatically worship, and neither is the gesture of kneeling.
The website “Novus Ordo Watch” published a photo on March 18, 2026, showing Father Roberto Prevost kneeling in a Pachamama ritual, published in the book “Ecotheology, a Perspective from Saint Augustine,” Mexico 1996. The photo is from a symposium/workshop of the Augustinians in Brazil in 1995.
To put it bluntly: the young missionary Robert Prevost did indeed participate in this congress on ecology and theology in 1995, and during a ceremony to Mother Earth, he knelt.
But I don't see any statue of Pachamama in the photo, only men kneeling and one raising his right hand. I can't see any worship of Pachamama as a goddess, neither on the part of Prevost nor on the part of any of the attendees.
Novus Ordo Watch and, the following day, Life Site News and Infovaticana interpreted it this way: There was an act of worship of an idol, a false god. Their articles suggest the following: since an idolater is an apostate who has betrayed his Catholic faith, Pope Leo XIV would be an apostate and would no longer be a legitimate Pope.
However, Novus Ordo Watch and, the following day, Life Site News and Infovaticana interpreted it this way: There was an act of worship of an idol, a false god. Their articles suggest the following: since an idolater is an apostate who has betrayed his Catholic faith, Pope Leo XIV would be an apostate and would no longer be a legitimate Pope.
My interpretation of the photo, as a missionary who has studied Andean culture, is quite different:
We see an inter-religious act, where a representative of Andean culture makes a payment to the earth, an offering and a dialogue with the earth. Other people, including Augustinian priests, attend this ceremony, which is part of Andean culture. Andean culture maintains certain pagan beliefs, such as the idea that the earth has a soul like a person (just like water, a mountain, or a tree).
In pre-Christian times, Pachamama was a goddess, but today she is seen more as a creature of God with a certain personality. This doesn't fit with Western Christian philosophy; however, it does fit with Franciscan spirituality. Francis, in his "Canticle of the Creatures," makes it clear that creatures are not gods, and yet he speaks to them and calls them "brothers" and "mother" in the case of the earth. This is not syncretism; it is inculturation. Different philosophies or cultures can be evangelized without rejecting their cultural and philosophical language, as long as they accept that Jesus Christ is the only saviour.
In the case of Pachamama, there are forms of ceremonies that do not contradict the Christian faith. Respecting the earth as a "being with a soul" still recognizes it as a creature of God. Pachamama is the earth, or rather, the soul of the earth. Therefore, we can speak to her as we speak to the Saints. We can kneel before her as we do before the Saints, as long as we see her as a creature and not as a Goddess. Intention is what matters. The gesture of prayer is not automatically worship, nor is the gesture of kneeling. This is what evangelical sects in Latin America always throw in our faces: "You Catholics worship the saints because you kneel before them." Now, some Catholics themselves are using this argument against Pope Leo XIII; it's the most absurd thing I've heard in years.
Pope Francis invited us in Laudato Si' and Querida Amazonía not to demonize nature but to learn from indigenous peoples and their profound spirituality. For them, everything in nature has a soul, and this helps them to respect and protect it. This is not necessarily polytheism but can be a more spiritual vision of God's creatures.
I don't deny that there are deviations in the current veneration of Pachamama. This cult has been adapted to Christianity and is being horribly adapted to Western capitalism. The informal miners, who number in the millions in Latin America, generally come from Andean cultures. They know that their work is very dangerous; their mines can collapse. They know that extracting gold from these mines harms Mother Earth. The devout Catholics hire a priest to perform a blessing before entering the mine for the first time. Others, less Catholic, hire a shaman to perform a ceremony of payment to the earth, similar to those used in agriculture. There are no human sacrifices there; only offerings of the land are made. However, I have heard that in very rare cases, animals or people have also been offered in this context. It is not normal. It is a deviation from the Andean rite itself and will not occur in more than 0.00001 percent of cases. There are also abuses in these Andean rites, but they are a great exception and not the norm.
Pope Francis was also accused of having attended an Amazonian ritual in the context of the Amazon Synod and of having worshipped Pachamama there. The accusation was ridiculous. I know people who participated there. There was a cloth adorned with many decorative objects in the center of the celebration circle. Among the decorations were plants, fruits, and stylized wooden images of a pregnant woman. Some have seen in her the Virgin Mary, and others Pachamama. None of these objects were worshipped or mistaken for idols. They were simply decorations. Furthermore, in the Amazon, there isn't much veneration of Pachamama because this culture doesn't depend so heavily on the land and its fruits. Their primary source of sustenance is water, and their spirit is believed to be Yacumama, the mother of water.
Where does so much hatred from certain Catholics toward Pope Francis and Pope Leo X come from?
Just look at who posts these news stories online: the first was the "Novus Ordo Watch." The subtitle of this page reads: "Unmasking the modernism of the Vatican II Church." These are people who have rejected the Catholic Church since Vatican II, like the Lefebvrists or the former nuns of Belorado. And do they believe these people to discredit Pope Leo?.
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