At the beginning of March, news came out of Mexico that a group of Mexican bishops had met in the diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas with Bishop Aurelio García Macias, undersecretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in order to work on a new indigenous rite of Mass inspired by Mayan traditions.
The Mexican bishops had met Pope Francis in February during their ad limina visit to Rome, and they announced that they wish to send a proposal of such a new rite in May to Rome for approval. Such a Mayan rite has already been practiced in the diocese of San Cristóbal, as it has been approved by the Mexican bishops’ conference. As with the Amazonian rite, it is clear that Pope Francis is in support of these new “inculturated” forms of the Roman rite of the Mass.
At the center of this new Mayan rite in Mexico are several elements that were already on the reform agenda of the 2019 Amazon Synod, namely a strengthening of the role of women in the liturgy (a step toward female “deacons”), a prominent role of married indigenous deacons (a step toward married priests), and a form of liturgical inculturation that has clear signs of idolatry, as we all were able to see in the worship of pachamama idols at the time of the Amazon Synod in Rome.
Now it is another form of paganism that is being promoted by Rome. The ancient Mayan religion is permeated by polytheism (the earth, the sun, the moon, and animals are all regarded as being gods), by animism (belief that objects and creatures have a soul), by the belief in communication with one’s ancestors (and even worshipping them), and by human sacrifice (to include women and children) as part of its worship. As we shall show, many of these idolatrous elements will be included in this new rite of Mass.
Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel – the former bishop of this particular Mexican diocese, San Cristóbal de las Casas in the southern Chiapas region – is a leading force of these adaptations of the Roman rite and has made it clear in multiple interviews and statements that Pope Francis has encouraged this work early on in his pontificate.
Arizmendi is also closely affiliated with 81-year-old liberation theologian Fr. Paolo Suess, the architect of the infamous Amazonian Synod.