A distressed Catholic reader sends in this clip of the Vatican’s  Christmas pop concert, a fundraiser of some sort, which featured a moment on stage in which an indigenous young woman from Latin America taught the audience to embrace the presence of Pachamama (Mother Earth) within. This, in the presence of bishops and cardinals, some of whom can be seen on camera following her instructions with smiles on her faces. For speakers of Spanish and Italian, you can see the moment beginning just after the 1:44 mark on the video.

Here’s an English translation of what the indigenous woman said in Spanish, after instructing the audience to cross their arms over their chests:

You will feel a strong vibration. It is the heart. Your heart, but also the heart of Mother Earth. On the other side, where there is silence, it is the Spirit. The Spirit that allows you to hear the message of the Mother.

For us indigenous peoples, mother earth, Hitchauaya, is everything. It is the Mother who gives us food, food, sacred water, medicinal plants; and what we offer to the earth is to pay homage to it, the placenta and the first hair we cut. For us, Mother Earth is fundamental, our connection with it is constant, how the pulse feels, how the heart feels. 

The American priest Father Zuhlsdorf points out that at the end of the Indian woman’s words, a celebrity Italian priest compares the fire-stricken Amazon rainforest to the Burning Bush before which Moses stood, in the presence of God. The deification of the Earth proceedeth.

The Vaticanist Marco Tosatti says angrily:

Even at Christmas. Can you say that you can’t take any more of these antics, or does this seem rigid too?

So there was earth worship at the Vatican’s Christmas concert. Also, Lionel Richie, an Ancient of Days for the OK Boomer set, singing “Party All Night Long”: