Leo XIV’s Peru Visit Prepared By Pachamama Offering

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Leo XIV’s Peru Visit Prepared By Pachamama Offering

gloria.tv | August 18, 2026

On 13–14 August, “Entrelazando Voces por la Dignidad,” a regional gathering of social organizations and Indigenous communities, took place in Cusco, Peru. Spanish-language outlets, including Vatican News, linked it to preparations for Pope Leo XIV’s November visit. Bishop Lizardo Estrada Herrera, auxiliary bishop of Cusco and CELAM secretary-general, inaugurated the gathering; Bishop Miguel Ángel Cadenas of Iquitos also attended. InfoVaticana video shows the event opening with an Andean offering to Pachamama/Mother Earth. Participants received coca leaves, performed guided breathing, blew three times on the leaves, and placed them with food offerings in bowls on the ground. Bishop Estrada is shown adding coca leaves to the offering. Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, Vatican official overseeing the dissolution of the community Sodalitium, also took part, placing coca leaves in the offering.

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From Infovaticana [computer translated to English from the original Spanish]:

A pontifical commissioner and a bishop deposit coca in a «payment to the land»: Jordi Bertomeu offeror to Pachamama

August 18, 2026

The South Macroregional Meeting «Interweaving Voices for Dignity», presented by Vatican News as part of the preparation for Leo XIV's visit to Peru, a rite of invocation to Mother Earth with distribution of coca leaves, breathing exercises and food offerings on the ground was opened without any Catholic prayer: in its place.

Among the bidders, as the images show, monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, officer of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and pontifical commissioner for the Sodalitium, that he deposits his coca leaves in the «payment» bowl with visible recollection and that, at the end of his intervention on the Sodalicio case, he turns the sign with his name upside down and leaves the camera shot.

On August 13 and 14, the Southern Macroregional Meeting «Interweaving Voices for Dignity: for human rights and the common good» was held in Cusco, which brought together representatives of social organizations, indigenous communities and groups from nine regions in southern Peru. Peru. The meeting was inaugurated by Monsignor Lizardo Estrada Herrera, auxiliary bishop of Cusco and general secretary of CELAM, and included the participation of Monsignor Miguel Ángel Cadenas, bishop of Iquitos. What the official Vatican News chronicle doesn't tell is how it started — or who else was there.


«It is the month of Mother Earth, who loves us so much»

According to the video spread on social networks, before the presentations a woman led the opening ceremony. «This month of August is very special for us, for the Andean worldview; it is the month of Mother Earth, who loves us so much, who is so affectionate, who is so kind, who gives us food», he explained to those present. In Andean tradition, August is the month in which Pachamama is «fed» through offerings and «payments to the land».

Immediately afterwards, coca leaves were distributed among all attendees and guided breathing exercises were carried out: «we are seeing how our interior is», indicated the officiant, while those present closed their eyes. «This body, this body that we inhabit is little land, it is territory», he continued.

The rite culminated with the deposit of coca leaves in bowls arranged on an altar on the ground, along with food —including cheese— offered to the earth: «we thank the earth in this important month; we give it three breaths when depositing them», instructed the director of the ceremony. The gesture of blowing three times on the coca leaves before offering them is part of the Andean ritual of «payment» or dispatch to Pachamama.

The video does not contain any Catholic prayer, blessing, or Trinitarian invocation. The spiritual part of the opening of the meeting was covered, entirely, by the rite of the Andean worldview. The bishops were present in the room, although for much of the ceremony they were left out of the camera shot.

[See original link above for videos]

Bertomeu, offering with recollection and departure hiding the sign with his name
The most striking attendee of the meeting does not appear in the Vatican News chronicle: Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, officer of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, trusted man of the Holy See in the most delicate files in Latin America and pontifical commissioner for the case of the Sodalitium of Christian Life.

The images show him participating fully in the rite: Bertomeu deposits the coca leaves in the bowl of the «pago», with visible recollection, immediately after the auxiliary bishop of Cusco. There is no evidence that he limited himself to witnessing the ceremony: he offered as another participant.

Its subsequent behavior is equally striking. The presentations begin immediately after the Pachamamic rite and, when Bertomeu takes the floor to tell the audience about his performance in the Sodalicio case, the camera focuses on the audience at all times, not the speaker. As if he had requested not to be documented there. When finished, the images capture him turning the sign with his name upside down on the table and leaving the camera shot. An official of the doctrinal dicastery of the Holy See who offers coca leaves to Mother Earth and who, immediately afterwards, ensures that there is no visible record of his presence at the event: each one will draw their conclusions about why he obeys so much discretion,and whether participation in Pachamamic rites is the type of image that suits whoever represents the Pope as pontifical commissioner. This medium has tried to contact Jordi Bertomeu but has not been attended to.


An ecclesial event, not an alien act

The worrying thing is that this is not an event of civil organizations that the Church attended as a guest. The meeting was inaugurated by the general secretary of CELAM himself, who set the framework by appealing to the Social Doctrine of the Church: «the defense of human dignity, justice, peace and the common good are not matters foreign to faith», said Monsignor Estrada, who formulated the objective of moving «from scattered voices to a shared word [...] and from proposals to concrete commitments». The format responds to the meetings that the social pastoral structures and vicariates of the southern Andean region organize together with the National Human Rights Coordinator.

Among the speakers were Tania Pariona, executive secretary of the National Human Rights Coordinator and former congresswoman from Nuevo Perú; Cusco congresswoman Ruth Luque, from the same political orbit; José Antonio Lapa, director of Human Rights Without Borders; and Victoria Taco, from the Espinar Platform for People Affected by Toxic Metals.


Vatican News highlights it; the rite and Bertomeu, silenced

The display that the Vatican media has given to the meeting is striking. Vatican News dedicated an extensive chronicle to him —reproduced by other media— in which the episcopal prominence is highlighted and the event is framed, expressly, in the path of preparation for the next visit of Pope Leo XIV to Peru. In that chronicle there is not a single line about the opening ceremony: neither coca leaves, nor «payment to the land», nor the month of Pachamama. Nor a single mention of Bertomeu, despite the fact that he spoke before the audience immediately after the ceremony. The contrast between what the images show and what the official story tells is, in itself, significant:the meeting is publicized as a prelude to the papal trip and it is omitted that it was a confessionally pagan act with the presence of an officer from the Dicastery of the prefect Victor Manuel Fernández.

Questions remain open: was the rite on the official program? Who directed it and by what? Do the organizers consider that a «payment to the land» can replace Christian prayer at the opening of a Church meeting? And does the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith consider active participation in offerings to Pachamama compatible with the function of its officers? As long as there are no answers, the images speak for themselves.