New Mass for the Protection of Creation. Pachamama still corrupts the Church.

The Vatican has called a press conference to present a new liturgical formulary: the Missa “pro custodia creationis.” It's no joke. Next Thursday, July 3rd, at 10:00 a.m., Cardinal Michael Czerny and Monsignor Vittorio Viola will enlighten us, from the Press Room, on this new addition to the Roman Missal. Because if the Church needs anything today, clearly, it is a new Mass for the environment.

The new formulary is added to the Missae “pro variis necessitatibus vel ad diversa,” that catch-all for everything the liturgists on duty deem “necessary.” Now, alongside the Masses “for good weather” or “for rulers,” we will have one specifically dedicated to Creation. Not to its Creator, of course, but to Creation itself. Let there be incense for tropical forests and a collection for biodiversity.

Czerny and Green Theology

The presentation will be led by Cardinal Michael Czerny, S.I., whose ecclesiastical career seems designed to confirm all the fears of those who see liberation theology as a mutation of the Gospel into an NGO. Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (a phrase that says something), has long been convinced that Christianity is better preached by talking about carbon emissions than about original sin.

At his side will be Monsignor Vittorio Francesco Viola, secretary of the Dicastery for Divine Worship. The man charged with ensuring the sacredness of worship will join the ecological celebration, perhaps to ensure that compostable chalices are used at this Mass, incense is omitted due to its toxic potential, and vestments are replaced with recycled fabrics. All in the name of liturgical sustainability.

Active participation, don't miss it

The conference, which can be streamed on the Vatican News YouTube channel, will have simultaneous translation into Italian and English. Of course, it won't be that the cosmic clamor of the Amazon doesn't reach every corner. And if any journalist wants to participate "actively"—a term so beloved by reformers of the Mass—they can do so remotely, provided they register in time.

Questions? Of course. Because active participation also includes asking why this Mass is being held right now, when the sense of the sacred is disintegrating, churches are emptying, and liturgical abuses are multiplying like subsidized solar panels. Is it really urgent to liturgize environmentalism?

One more Mass. For what?

The Roman Missal is enriched—they say—with this new Mass. In reality, it is impoverished a little further. Because where the Church once offered the Holy Sacrifice for the salvation of souls, she now offers prayers for the "custody of creation." We've become accustomed to thematic Masses being added like one adds filters to Instagram: a bit of synodality here, a touch of universal brotherhood there, and now, a bouquet of well-intentioned Pachamism.

Of course: the celebration of this Mass according to the Vetus Ordo will not be permitted. Of course. The earth doesn't need more incense than it did in 1962, nor Gregorian chant that could upset the acoustic balance of ecosystems. It's the planet that is at the centre, not the altar.

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