The Macrorregional South Meeting «Entrelazando Voces por la Dignidad», presented by Vatican News as part of the preparations for the visit of Leo XIV to Peru, opened without any Catholic prayer: instead, a rite of invocation to Mother Earth with distribution of coca leaves, breathing exercises, and food offerings on the ground.
Among the offerors, as the images show, Msgr. Jordi Bertomeu, official of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and pontifical commissioner for the Sodalicio, who places his coca leaves in the bowl of the «pago» with visible reverence and who, after finishing his intervention on the Sodalicio case, turns his nameplate face down and exits the camera frame.
On August 13 and 14, the Macrorregional South Meeting «Entrelazando Voces por la Dignidad: for human rights and the common good» was held in Cusco, bringing together representatives of social organizations, indigenous communities, and collectives from nine regions of southern Peru. The meeting was inaugurated by Msgr. Lizardo Estrada Herrera, auxiliary bishop of Cusco and secretary general of CELAM, and was attended by Msgr. Miguel Ángel Cadenas, bishop of Iquitos. What the official Vatican News report does not mention is how it began — nor who else was there.
«It is the month of Mother Earth, who loves us so much»
As the video shared on social media shows, 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 generous, who gives us food», she explained to those present. In the Andean tradition, August is the month when the Pachamama is «fed» through offerings and «payments to the earth».
Coca leaves were then distributed among all attendees, and guided breathing exercises were performed: «let’s see how our interior is», the officiant indicated, while those present closed their eyes. «This body, this body we inhabit is little earth, is territory», she continued.
The rite culminated with the placement of the coca leaves in bowls arranged on an altar on the ground, alongside food —including cheese— offered to the earth: «we thank the earth in this very important month; we give it three breaths as we place them», the ceremony director instructed. The gesture of blowing three times over the coca leaves before offering them is part of the Andean ritual of the «pago» or dispatch to the Pachamama.
The video shows no Catholic prayer, no blessing, no Trinitarian invocation. The spiritual part of the meeting’s opening was entirely covered by the Andean worldview rite. The bishops were present in the room, although for much of the ceremony they remained out of the camera shot.
Bertomeu, offering with reverence and exit hiding the nameplate
The most striking attendee at the meeting does not appear in the Vatican News report: Msgr. Jordi Bertomeu, official of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, a trusted man of the Holy See in the most delicate cases in Latin America and pontifical commissioner for the case of the Sodalicio of Christian Life.
The images show him fully participating in the rite: Bertomeu places the coca leaves in the bowl of the «pago», with visible reverence, immediately after the auxiliary bishop of Cusco. There is no indication that he limited himself to witnessing the ceremony: he offered as just another participant.
His subsequent behavior is equally striking. The presentations begin immediately after the Pachamama rite and, when Bertomeu takes the floor to recount his actions in the Sodalicio case before the audience, the camera focuses at all times on the public, not the speaker. As if he had requested not to be documented there. When he finishes, the images show him turning his nameplate face down on the table and exiting the camera frame. An official of the doctrinal dicastery of the Holy See who offers coca leaves to Mother Earth and who, immediately afterward, ensures that no visible record of his presence at the event remains: each person will draw their own conclusions about what such discretion is due to, and whether participation in Pachamama rites is the kind of image befitting someone who represents the Pope as pontifical commissioner. This media outlet has attempted to contact Jordi Bertomeu but has not been attended to.
An ecclesial event, not an unrelated act
What is concerning is that this was not an event of civil organizations that the Church attended as a guest. The meeting was inaugurated by the secretary general 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 the faith», said Msgr. Estrada, who formulated the objective of moving «from scattered voices to a shared word […] and from proposals to concrete commitments». The format corresponds to the meetings that the structures of social pastoral care and the vicariates of the southern Andes organize together with the National Coordinator of Human Rights.
Among the speakers were Tania Pariona, executive secretary of the National Coordinator of Human Rights and former congresswoman of Nuevo Perú; the Cusco congresswoman Ruth Luque, from the same political orbit; José Antonio Lapa, director of Human Rights Without Borders; and Victoria Taco, from the Platform of Those Affected by Toxic Metals of Espinar.
Vatican News highlights it; the rite and Bertomeu, silenced
The deployment that Vatican media have given to the meeting is striking. Vatican News dedicated an extensive report to it —reproduced by other media— in which the episcopal protagonism is emphasized and the event is expressly framed within the path of preparation for the upcoming visit of Pope Leo XIV to Peru. In that report there is not a single line about the opening ceremony: neither coca leaves, nor «payment to the earth», nor the month of the Pachamama. Nor a single mention of Bertomeu, despite the fact that he spoke to the audience immediately after the ceremony. The contrast between what the images show and what the official account 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 official of the Dicastery of Prefect Victor Manuel Fernández.
Questions remain open: was the rite included in the official program? Who directed it and in what capacity? Do the organizers consider that a «payment to the earth» can replace Christian prayer in the opening of a Church meeting? And does the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith consider active participation in offerings to the Pachamama compatible with the function of its officials? While there are no answers, the images speak for themselves.