To Serve a Darker Purpose
by M.P. Pellicer | Noir Notebook
On the eve of the 2019 Amazonian Synod, four small, two-foot statues appeared inside Vatican grounds. They depicted Pachamama—an Andean fertility goddess said to preside over planting and harvest—and were placed in a space where primarily Latin American bishops gathered to worship. What began as a cultural display had, for some, crossed into something far more unsettling.
Then, in October 2019, something strange happened. The statues vanished from the nearby Church of St. Maria in Traspontina. Within hours, they were discovered in the dark waters of the Tiber River—thrown in by unknown hands. Police recovered them and quietly returned them, allowing the display to continue through the close of the synod.
Pope Francis (1936-2025) later stated the figures had been presented “without idolatrous intentions,” though Vatican transcripts show he referred to them by name—Pachamama.
The incident ignited unease. Six cardinals and bishops openly condemned what they described as pagan rituals within the Vatican walls. Among them, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò issued a stark warning, calling it ” an abomination of idolatrous rites has entered the sanctuary of God and has given rise to a new form of apostasy whose seeds, which have been active for a long time, are growing with renewed vigor and effectiveness.”
He urged that St. Peter’s Basilica be re-consecrated.
“Father Taraborelli a Vatican exorcist works in a windowless room at the back of Santa Maria in Traspontina, a church built in 1474, on the Via della Conciliazione, that was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The church is situated on the site of an ancient Roman pyramid known as the Meta Romuli. It was believed to be the tomb of Romulus. The pyramid was demolished by Pope Alexander VI, and the materials used to build it came from the Colosseum. Hadrian built the original structure but it was destroyed by cannon fire during the Sack of Rome in 1527. The existing church was erected in 1566.
Was it a coincidence that images of a deity that is offered animal and human sacrifices, were kept at the “center of Rome’s exorcism and deliverance ministry?”
Fr. Charles Murr, author of Faith & Reason, has made a startling claim: that Pope Leo XIV—then Fr. Robert Francis Prevost, O.S.A.—took part in a Pachamama ritual during an Augustinian theological symposium in 1995.
According to Murr, three Augustinian priests confirmed that Prevost appeared in photographs from the event, kneeling during the ritual. The images, preserved in the official proceedings of the IV Simposio-Taller “Lectura de San Agustín desde América Latina” (São Paulo, January 23–28, 1995), bear a caption that reads: “Celebration of the Rite of Pachamama (Mother Earth), an agricultural rite offered by the cultures of the South-Andean region in Peru and Bolivia.”
Another photograph in the same volume—captioned “Foto de todos los participantes del Simposio São Paulo Brasil”—places the future pontiff among attendees at a gathering that openly incorporated the ritual into its “ecotheology” program.
Murr reports that he obtained high-resolution scans of these proceedings from the Salesian Central Library in Buenos Aires. One image, he notes, shows participants celebrating Mass in the same location where the Pachamama rite had taken place. In that photo, Prevost stands among them, hand in hand with fellow participants.
To Murr, the implications are grave. He argues that such participation contradicts the First Commandment, pointing to early Christian martyrs who chose death rather than take part in rites honoring other gods.
The controversy deepens with more recent claims. On March 16, 2026, InfoVaticana published a report citing journalistic investigations and judicial findings from Bolivia. These accounts describe criminal cases in which individuals were allegedly killed and offered in rituals associated with Pachamama, particularly in mining regions.
One case, reported by the Bolivian newspaper El Deber on March 15, 2024, led to the conviction of two men for crimes tied to the disappearance of a 25-year-old woman in 2021. Prosecutors alleged that she had been drugged, transported to a mine, and buried as an offering. Her body has never been recovered, but the court accepted the reconstruction of events based on testimony and evidence.
In describing such practices, El Deber reported that certain rituals stem from the belief that Pachamama requires blood offerings—acts of gratitude meant to secure material blessings. These ceremonies often involve incense, herbs, alcohol, and the ritual slaughter of animals, particularly in a rite known as wilancha.
“The seriousness of the case destroys in one fell swoop all the sentimental rhetoric with which some try to surround these cults. The victim was a young woman, a mother of two children, who was turned into a ritual object to obtain supposed favors from the land. There is no here ‘ancestral wisdom’ to admire, nor “spirituality of the people” to romanticize, nor “intercultural dialogue” with which to whitewash the horror. There is a sacrificial, bloodthirsty, and deeply anti-Christian logic. There is a divinization of the earth that demands blood. And men are willing to give it to him.”
Further reporting suggests the involvement of organized groups, including intermediaries and ritual practitioners, who allegedly coordinate such acts. In a separate investigation cited by InfoVaticana, a ritual specialist—known as a yatiri—claimed that human offerings still occur in connection with mining and construction.
Pachamama, revered as “Mother Earth” in Andean cosmology, has long been associated with fertility and abundance. Still, there has always been a dark side where “Mother Earth” is offered the ultimate sacrifice: a human being. These rites, dating back hundreds of years to Mesoamericans, before the arrival of Europeans, are being verified by archaeological digs. Finally, these underreported instances of human sacrifice are coming to light.
What emerges is not merely a question of history or culture, but a shadowed intersection of faith, ritual, and savage superstition—one that continues to stir unease far beyond the Andes.
According to the yatiri, humans are targeted and kidnapped for the express purpose of becoming an offering. His description is direct and brutal: the victim is intoxicated until unconscious, the ritual is carried out, and the body is buried. This is not an accusation from outsiders or critics of Andean culture. It is an insider’s account of how the ritual unfolds.
The same report cites historian Sayuri Loza, who explains the belief behind these acts: the soul of the sacrificed must remain in place to guard it. In this worldview, the human person is no longer sacred—no longer made in the image of God—but reduced to material, used to stabilize a structure, protect a mine, or secure prosperity. It is a complete inversion of human dignity. A person ceases to be an end and becomes a tool. And when innocent blood becomes part of the ritual, the practice crosses a line—what was once called pagan reveals something far darker.
The pattern repeats elsewhere. On November 8, 2023, Al Rojo Vivo, reported that Bolivian prosecutors were investigating alleged human sacrifices linked to a mine. Authorities examined the discovery of bodies in mining contexts, amid suspicions that the victims had been offered to “El Tío,” a sinister figure tied to Bolivian mining cults. Once again, the elements align: blood, ritual, offering, and a belief system steeped in fear and superstition.
At this point, to claim that Pachamama is merely a harmless cultural symbol or a neutral expression of folk tradition is not misunderstanding—it is a refusal to confront the evidence. Reports from El Deber, La Prensa, and others demand that these practices be called what they are.
From a Catholic perspective, the conclusion is unavoidable. Any cult that demands human blood, any ritual that seeks favor through sacrifice, any spirituality that replaces God with the deified earth while reducing man to an offering—such practices fall into the realm of idolatry, and in their most extreme form, something far more sinister. There can be no reconciliation with a system that strips human life of its inherent worth.
The question is no longer whether these practices can be reframed in academic or theological language. The reality is far more concrete. The testimonies persist. The investigations continue. And the evidence suggests that human sacrifice, tied to this religious framework, is not a relic of the past—but a shadow that still lingers. Why was the present Pope involved in a ritual tied to the deity Pachamama which is offered live human beings as appeasement?
