Bishops’ Ritual Appearance Sparks Outrage

Man in white religious attire looking down thoughtfully.

Video from Peru shows a senior Vatican official and two Catholic bishops placing coca leaves into earth offerings during a ritual dedicated to Pachamama, the Andean earth goddess, just weeks before Pope Leo XIV’s planned visit.

Story Snapshot

Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu and Bishops Lizardo Estrada Herrera and Miguel Ángel Cárdenas reportedly took part in an August ceremony in Cusco, Peru.
Reports say the ritual opened a Church-linked human rights conference tied to preparations for Pope Leo XIV’s upcoming Peru trip.
No Catholic prayer appears in the recorded opening, according to accounts of the footage.
Vatican defenders call the act “inculturation,” not worship, citing decades of Church teaching on blending faith with local custom.
The episode revives a fight that first exploded in 2019, when Pachamama statues appeared in the Vatican Gardens.

What The Video Reportedly Shows

Multiple accounts describe a ceremony leader telling attendees to close their eyes, breathe, and give thanks to “the earth” before placing coca leaves into bowls with other offerings. The leader is quoted saying, “We thank the earth in this important month: we give her three breaths when we deposit the [coca leaves].” Witnesses say the bishops and Bertomeu did not just watch. They placed leaves among the offerings themselves.

The gathering was called “Weaving Voices for Dignity: For Human Rights and the Common Good.” Coverage says it was directly linked to planning for Pope Leo XIV’s Peru visit. Critics argue that placing named Vatican-connected clergy at an earth-veneration ceremony, days before a papal trip, sends a message the Church cannot easily walk back, regardless of intent.

A Fight The Church Has Had Before

This is not new territory. In 2019, wooden Pachamama figures sat in the Vatican Gardens during an Amazon synod, then vanished after someone threw them into the Tiber River. That fight never fully died down, and it now shapes how people read the new Cusco video. Cardinal Robert Sarah later called the 2019 episode proof that “paganism has entered the Church,” a charge critics now apply again.

Pope Leo XIV himself has publicly warned against nature worship. In an Amazon message, he cautioned against subjecting oneself to creation “as a slave or worshipper,” saying nature should point people toward praising God, not replace Him. That statement sits awkwardly next to video of Church-linked officials taking part in an earth-offering rite just before his trip.

Inculturation Or Idolatry: The Church’s Own Defense

Defenders lean on official Vatican language. A 1988 Vatican document defines inculturation as bringing the Gospel into local cultures while also bringing those cultures into the life of the Church. A former bishop defending Pope Leo XIV put it more bluntly: “This is not syncretism; it is inculturation,” arguing cultures can be evangelized without rejecting their own language, so long as Jesus Christ remains “the only saviour.”

Archbishop Viganò condemns the Pachamama ritual performed by a Vatican official and bishops ahead of Pope Leo’s Peru visit.

"How would the Martyrs of the Faith judge this apostasy of the clergy and the leaders of the conciliar-synodal church?" @CarloMVigano… pic.twitter.com/YGJFBQgEo8

— LifeSiteNews (@LifeSite) August 20, 2026

That defense has real weight in Catholic teaching. Pope Francis once wrote it is “possible to take up an indigenous symbol in some way, without necessarily considering it as idolatry,” and that some local festivals carry sacred meaning worth preserving, even if they need refinement over time. Still, none of the participants named in the Cusco reports have publicly explained what they personally believed the ceremony meant, leaving the intent question open.

Why This Keeps Happening

The deeper problem is not just one ceremony. It’s a pattern. Every time Church leaders blend indigenous ritual with high-profile events, one side sees respectful cultural inclusion and the other sees compromise with paganism. Without a full transcript, official event program, or on-record explanation from Bertomeu and the two bishops, the public is left choosing between competing interpretations of the same video, a gap that fuels distrust on all sides of this debate.