Leo XIV’s Peru Visit Prepared By Pachamama Offering

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Pachamama ritual performed by Vatican official took place at pro-LGBT event
In addition to the idolatrous Pachamama ritual, the 'human rights' event was held in conjunction with LGBT groups.

Aug 20, 2026
(Lepanto Institute [adapted from LifeSiteNews]) — Rorate Caeli reported published a report from InfoVaticana yesterday morning showing that two Catholic bishops and a monsignor participated in a pagan ritual (venerating and praying to Pachamama) in a conference intended to prepare the way for Pope Leo’s trip to Peru this November. The initial story came from the Vatican News, and unsurprisingly, Vatican News omitted several key details.

The event titled “Weaving Voices for Dignity: For Human Rights and the Common Good” was organized by three organizations: Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos (CNDDHH), Comisión Episcopal de Acción Social (Episcopal Commission for Social Action of the Peruvian Bishops’ Conference), and Derechos Humanos Sin Fronteras. In addition to representatives from unnamed “social organizations, Indigenous peoples and communities, grassroots groups, leaders, and human rights defenders,” the list of participants in the event included Bishop Lizardo Estrada Herrera, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cusco and Secretary General of CELAM (Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council), Bishop Miguel Ángel Cadenas of Iquitos, and Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, official of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

READ: Vatican official performs Pachamama ritual ahead of Pope Leo’s Peru visit

The sanitized version of the event described by Vatican News, indicates that:

The gathering provided a space to share experiences from different territories, identify common challenges, and develop proposals in response to the main human rights issues facing the country.

However, CNDDHH indicated that the event was organized “to dialogue, share their demands, and build agreements around human rights and the common good,” drawing together:

Representatives of social organizations, indigenous and peasant communities, women’s and youth groups, LGBTIQ+ people, people with disabilities, human and environmental rights defenders, relatives of victims of state violence, and faith communities.

So, in addition to opening the meeting with idolatrous veneration of a pagan deity, the meeting was held in conjunction with LGBT groups to include such in the promotion of “human dignity” and “human rights.”

The most alarming aspect of the meeting was the pagan rite held in the opening.

Video shared by InfoVaticana shows very clearly that both Bp. Lizardo Estrada and Msgr. Jordi Bertomeu deposit coca leaves in a “payment to the earth.” As can be seen in the video, on the floor is a mandala used for venerating the Pachamama, and participants are carrying cocoa leaves to a bowl of fire to burn the leaves as an offering to the Pachamama. At 51 seconds in the video, Bp. Estrada passes by the mandala with the cocoa leaves cradled in his hands, and he deposits the leaves in the bowl of fire to the right. At 55 seconds in the video, he is followed by Msgr. Bertomeu (wearing blue jeans and a gray coat) who is seen likewise placing his cocoa leaves into the bowl of fire before returning to his place to the left of the screen. While this is happening, a voiceover attempts to explain the significance of the ritual:

We have a piece of pottery. We place it with a little breath, always thanking it for what we are grateful for.

This month is for giving thanks. Truthfully, however you wish, however you feel it too, because it also comes from the heart, and we place it there and return to our spot here. To the ceramics, we are going to fire it – we are going to return to the fire, because Cuzco is a territory that works a lot with the memory of the sun, the memory of the little fire, and we are going to ask it to transform, to transform to what we are asking for to carry these messages. Because we also come with territories, we come with ancestors, we come with foremothers, we come with feelings – so we are going to ask Grandmother Fire to take it and to take all our messages to bring us wisdom so it returns in the form of wisdom to each one of us.

It must be stated firmly and unequivocally that what took place in this video is a clear violation of the First Commandment and the Vatican must investigate whether this constitutes an act of apostasy or heresy.

But this is just the beginning of the problems with this meeting. According to the publication, La Abeja, the meeting was called by Msgr. Bertomeu:

What is concerning is that this was not an event organized by civil society groups to which the Church was invited. The meeting was inaugurated by the Secretary General of CELAM himself, who set the framework by appealing to the Social Doctrine of the Church.

Given that Msgr. Bertomeu is said to have been the principal organizer for this event, then the veneration of and prayers to the Pachamama were done under his authority. Additionally, the pro-Trans messaging and participating organizations are his fault as well. It’s worth noting here that in 2019 he said the following regarding homosexuality:

affirming the direct connection of homosexuality with pedophilia from the data outlined above, not only involves the commission of a great injustice, but also the criminalization of a certain sexual identity.

Article continues here: https://www.lifesitenews.com/analysis/pa...gbt-event/