A prayer to Pachamama, the “Mother
Earth” venerated by indigenous tribes such as the Aymara and Quechua in
the Andes but also in the northern plains of Argentina and in Brazil
near Bolivia and Peru, has been found in an official booklet of the Fondazione Missio (Mission Foundation) of the Italian bishops’ conference.
The prayer is presented without warning about the fact that it is
addressed not to God — another prayer in the publication, written in the
same letter-type and the same color scheme, is addressed to the “Most
Holy Trinity” — but to a pagan divinity, asking for material prosperity
and aiming to placate the spirits of the Earth.
The booklet is part of a series of resources presenting the work and
aims of the Catholic mission and its missionaries, with a special focus
on the Amazon Synod that took place in Rome from October 6 to October
27.
It was published before the opening of the synod. The presence of the
“Pachamama” in an official publication of de Italian bishops’ mission
agency suggests that both the group comprising indigenous natives of the
Amazon region and their European-type accompaniers and the Catholic
hierarchy in Rome were fully aware of the “Mother Earth”–type cult with
syncretic Christian overtones that repeated itself in the Vatican
gardens and the church of Santa Maria in Traspontina near Saint Peter’s
Basilica and at an “Amazonian” Via Crucis.--> READ MORE