Rorate Note: Official Vatican News covering of the event here (in Spanish); Spanish page Infovaticana adds the grotesque context.
A Pontifical Commissioner and a Bishop Deposit Coca Leaves in an "Earth Offering": Jordi Bertomeu as Offerer at a Pachamama Ceremony
Infovaticana
August 18, 2026
The Southern Macroregional Encounter "Interweaving Voices for Dignity" — presented by Vatican News as part of the preparation for Pope Leo XIV's upcoming visit to Peru — opened without any Catholic prayer whatsoever. In its place, a ritual invoking Mother Earth was performed, with the distribution of coca leaves, guided breathing exercises, and food offerings placed on the ground.
The Southern Macroregional Encounter "Interweaving Voices for Dignity: for Human Rights and the Common Good" was held in Cusco on August 13 and 14. It brought together representatives of social organizations, indigenous communities, and collectives from nine regions of southern Peru. The encounter was inaugurated by Bishop Lizardo Estrada Herrera, Auxiliary Bishop of Cusco and Secretary General of CELAM, and included the participation of Bishop Miguel Ángel Cadenas of Iquitos. What the official Vatican News account does not report is how it began — or who else was present.
"It Is the Month of Mother Earth, Who Loves Us So Much"
As shown in the video circulated on social media, a woman presided over the opening ceremony before any of the formal presentations. "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 tender, so generous, who gives us food," she explained to those present. In Andean tradition, August is the month in which the Pachamama is "fed" through offerings and "earth payments."
Coca leaves were then distributed to all those in attendance, followed by guided breathing exercises. "Let us see how we are within ourselves," the officiating woman instructed, while those present closed their eyes. "This body, this body we inhabit is little earth, it is territory," she continued.
The rite culminated in the depositing of coca leaves into bowls arranged on a ground-level altar, alongside food offerings — including cheese — offered to the earth. "We give thanks to the earth in this so important month; we breathe three times upon them as we place them," the ceremony's director instructed. The gesture of blowing three times on the coca leaves before offering them is a constituent element of the Andean "payment" or dispatch ritual to the Pachamama.
The video contains no Catholic prayer of any kind — no blessing, no Trinitarian invocation. The spiritual dimension of the encounter's opening was covered entirely by the Andean cosmological rite. The bishops were present in the room, though for a considerable portion of the ceremony they remained outside the camera's field of view.
Bertomeu: Offering with Solemnity, Then Concealing His Name Placard
The most notable attendee at the encounter does not appear in the Vatican News account: Archbishop Jordi Bertomeu, official of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Holy See's trusted representative in the most sensitive cases in Latin America, and pontifical commissioner for the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae case.
The footage shows him participating fully in the rite: Bertomeu deposits his coca leaves into the bowl of the "earth payment" with visible solemnity, immediately after the Auxiliary Bishop of Cusco. There is no indication that he merely observed the ceremony — he offered as a full participant.
His subsequent behavior is equally striking. The formal presentations begin immediately after the Pachamama rite, and when Bertomeu takes the floor to address the audience about his work on the Sodalitium case, the camera focuses throughout on the audience rather than on the speaker — as though a request had been made not to document him at that moment. Upon finishing, footage shows him turning his name placard face down on the table and stepping out of the camera's frame. Each observer will draw their own conclusions about what accounts for such studied discretion on the part of a Dicastery official of the Holy See — and about whether participation in Pachamama rites is the sort of image befitting someone who represents the Pope as a pontifical commissioner. This outlet attempted to contact Archbishop Bertomeu but received no response.
An Ecclesial Event, Not a Civil One
What makes this troubling is that this was not a civil organization's event at which the Church was merely a guest. The encounter was inaugurated by the Secretary General of CELAM himself, who framed it with an appeal to the Church's Social Doctrine: "the defense of human dignity, justice, peace, and the common good are not matters foreign to the faith," said Bishop Estrada, who articulated the objective of moving "from scattered voices to a shared word… and from proposals to concrete commitments." The format corresponds to that of the encounters organized by the pastoral social structures and the vicariates of the southern Andes together with the Peruvian National Human Rights Coordinator.
Among the presenters were Tania Pariona, executive secretary of the National Human Rights Coordinator and former congresswoman for Nuevo Perú; Ruth Luque, a Cusco congresswoman from the same political orbit; José Antonio Lapa, director of Human Rights Without Borders; and Victoria Taco of the Espinar Platform of Those Affected by Toxic Metals.
Vatican News Highlights the Event; the Rite and Bertomeu Are Silenced
The attention given to the encounter by Vatican media is notable. Vatican News devoted an extensive account to it — reproduced by other outlets — in which episcopal participation is highlighted and the event is explicitly framed as part of the preparatory journey for Pope Leo XIV's forthcoming visit to Peru. That account contains not a single line about the opening ceremony: no coca leaves, no "earth payment," no month of the Pachamama. Nor is there a single mention of Bertomeu, despite his having addressed the audience immediately after the ceremony. The contrast between what the footage shows and what the official account reports is itself significant: the encounter is publicized as a prelude to the papal visit, while the fact that it was a confessionally pagan act attended by an official of Cardinal Fernández's Dicastery is omitted entirely.
Questions remain unanswered: was the rite included in the official program? Who directed it and in what capacity? Do the organizers consider an "earth payment" an acceptable substitute for Christian prayer at the opening of an ecclesial gathering? And does the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith consider active participation in Pachamama offerings compatible with the functions of its officials? Until answers are forthcoming, the footage speaks for itself. [Source, in Spanish]
