Vatican official performs Pachamama ritual ahead of Pope Leo's Peru visit - LifeSite
Tue Aug 18, 2026 - 9:00 am EDTTue Aug 18, 2026 - 1:53 pm EDT
CUSCO, Peru (LifeSiteNews) — Last week a senior Vatican official participated in a Pachamama ritual alongside two Catholic bishops.
The ritual took place on August 13 at a conference in Cusco, a Peruvian city in the Andean mountains, promoted by the Catholic Church. The event anticipated Pope Leo XIV’s planned visit to the country.
According to Spanish news outlet InfoVaticana the conference opened with an Andean ritual dedicated to Pachamama, involving coca leaves, food offerings, and guided breathing exercises. Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, a priest and canon lawyer who serves in the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and as papal commissioner for clerical sexual abuse cases, took an active part. Video shared with InfoVatican show him placing coca leaves among the ritual offerings. Bishop Lizardo Estrada Herrera, secretary general of CELAM …