Pagan “Pachamama” Statue Takes Centerstage in Vatican Synod

Pope Francis formally kicked off the Amazon Synod with a religious ceremony held in the Vatican Gardens which included the blessing and veneration of a wooden sculpture of a naked pregnant woman known as the “Pachamama”.

The religious ceremony, held on October 4, 2019, eve of the Amazon Synod, was presided over by a shaman, in the presence of the Pope as well as several bishops and cardinals. Several indigenous people bowed down and prayed before the pagan “Pachamama” image, which was blessed and formally received as a gift by the Pope.

The ceremony belongs to indigenous rituals of Amazonian tribes, and involves worship of the so-called Mother Earth, the “Pachamama”. The Pachamama is an object of veneration amongst Amazonian tribes, a goddess to which some Bolivians sacrifice llamas, an earth deity worshipped by some Peruvians, rooted in pagan Incan beliefs and practices.

Rev. Paulo Suess, a participant in the Amazon Synod, left no doubt as to the pagan character of the ceremonies with the wooden images in the Vatican Gardens. In an October 17 interview with Vatican News, he welcomed the pagan rites, saying: “Even if this was a pagan rite, it is nevertheless a pagan worship of God. One cannot dismiss paganism as nothing.”