Shocking Audio Leak Shows the Vatican’s Real Priority Dealing With Wicked Priests

Since the 2003 Boston stories broke and destroyed the Church's reputation, the Vatican has assured us that those harmed by wicked priests are its first priority. Turns out that was a lie.

Researchers Find Rare and Lost Copy of Oldest English Known Poem in Rome Library

From Associated Press

1. Valentina Longo, curator of Medieval and Modern Manuscripts at the National Central Library of Rome, pushing a cart with the copy of the ‘Ecclesiastical History of the English People’ by the Venerable Bede taken from the library archive 2. Longo placing the book on the table 3. Close of hands opening the book 4. Close of pages of the manuscript 5. Dr. Elisabetta Magnanti, Visiting research fellow School of English Trinity College Dublin (left), calling on Dr. Mark Faulkner, Professor in Medieval literature at the School of English Trinity College Dublin, to look at the manuscript 6. Tilt up from detail on manuscript to Longo and Faulkner looking at it with the help of a torchlight 7. Longo, Faulkner, Magnanti and Andrea Cappa, Head of Manuscripts and Rare Books Reading Room, National Central Library of Rome, looking at the manuscript 8. Close of manuscript 9. Faulkner and Magnanti looking at the book 10. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Mark Faulkner, Ussher Associate Professor in Medieval literature, School of English, Trinity College Dublin: “Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People is one of the most widely copied works in the Middle Ages, there's almost 200 manuscripts. But the most famous two are the earliest two, one of which is in Cambridge, one is in St. Petersburg, and both are thought to have been completed in or very shortly after Bede’s death. Those two have always been very important for reconstructing what Bede wrote, but then there's a much smaller number of slightly later copies of which this is one. We're talking a handful, maybe five or six, and the fact that this has now been recognised as a copy of the ecclesiastical history will be very important for how we understand the transmission of Bede’s text.” 11. Page of the manuscript with Caedmon’s Hymn on the bottom left 12. Close of Caedmon’s Hymn in old English language incorporated in the main text in Latin 13. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Mark Faulkner, Ussher Associate Professor in Medieval literature, School of English, Trinity College Dublin: “ So, Bede is clearly very interested in the story of Caedmon. He includes it. But when it comes to the moment, he doesn't give the text in English. He says it's extremely beautiful, and is clearly very much a fan of its aesthetics, but he says I'm actually going to give you a translation. Now, early readers disagreed with this, I think, because in the two earliest copies, it's added either in the bottom margin or at the end of the manuscript. But the Rome manuscript is the earliest one to incorporate in the text. Prior to the discovery of the Rome manuscript, the earliest one was from the early 12th century. So this is three centuries earlier than that. And so it attests to the importance that was already being attached to the English in the early ninth century.” 14. Faulkner putting the so-called 'snakes' on the pages to hold the book open 15. Faulkner looking at the the manuscript as he explains 16. Close of Caedmon’s Hymn and Faulkner’s hands pointing at it ++UPDSOUND of Dr. Faulkner explaining++ (English) “In this manuscript this Hymns is actually given in English, it starts down here, with “Nupue sciulun.” 17. Close of Faulkner’s finger following the words as he reads it ++UPSOUND of Dr. Faulkner reading the Caedmon’s Hymns in old English as it is written on the manuscript: 18. Tilt down of Dr. Faulkner looking at the book and explaining 20. Pull focus from books on the shelf to people studying at the desk in the Manuscripts and Rare Books Reading Room

Traditional Catholic Morning Prayers in English | May

Traditional Catholic morning prayers to help start your day in a godly way! The month of May is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. May our devotion to the Blessed Mother increase more and more and help us to love her divine Son, Jesus, more and more. We've included the Memorare, the litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and a Spiritual Communion. Begin your May with daily morning prayer. This video is a compilation of many traditional morning prayers Catholics say, and should not be considered a replacement for those who have an obligation to pray the Divine Office morning prayers.

7 Names of Jesus the Catholic Church Stopped Using… Here’s Why

From Totus Catholica

The Catholic Church did not erase the name of Jesus; it preserved it across languages. Yeshua became Jesus through the Septuagint and the Gospel writers, while titles like Yahweh, Logos, and Emmanuel were not buried but translated and worshiped in the Church’s liturgy. The same is true of baptism and the divine name: the Trinitarian formula comes from Christ’s command, not from a later invention. Jehovah is a later hybrid form, not the original pronunciation, and the Church’s use of these names reflects fidelity to Scripture, not corruption. CHAPTERS: 0:00 The Stranger Who Said My Bible Was a Lie 2:01 Yeshua, Jesus, and the Septuagint 3:06 The Catechism on the Name Jesus 4:10 Yahweh and the Liturgy 5:00 The Sign of the Cross and the Temple Name 6:00 Jehovah Is a Later Hybrid Form 6:36 Baptism in Jesus’ Name and Matthew 28:19 7:29 The Jewish Objection and Second Temple Christology 8:19 Seven Names, One Lord, One Church 🌍 Website: https://totuscatholica.org/ 📿 Rosary Guide: https://totuscatholica.org/rosary ✉️ Contact: https://totuscatholica.org/contact 🔍 Examination of Conscience: https://catholicexaminationofconscien... 📚 Free eBooks: https://buymeacoffee.com/totuscatholi... 👥 Become a Totus Insider: https://buymeacoffee.com/totuscatholi...

St Mateo Correa Magallanes, Pray for Us

St Mateo Correa Magallanes, whose Feast is today, was the Priest who gave Bld Miguel Pro his first Holy Communion. May he, and all the Mexican Martyrs, pray for us!

From the Knights of Columbus

St Mateo Correa was executed for refusing to violate the seal of confession.

Mateo Correa Magallanes was born in Tepechitlan, Zacatecas, on July 23, 1866. Although he had scarce economic resources, he began his elementary school studies in Jerez, Zacatecas, and concluded them in 1879 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, thanks to the generosity of benefactors. He left the capital of Jalisco in January 1881 to enroll in the conciliar seminary of Zacatecas.

Ordained as a priest on Aug. 20, 1893, he served in many places: at the Hacienda of Mezquite; at the Hacienda of Trujillo; as chaplain of San Miguel, in Valparaiso, Zacatecas; as assistant vicar in the same place; and as chaplain of Mazapil, Zacatecas. He served as parish priest in Concepcion del Oro, Zacatecas; Colotlan, Jalisco; Noria de los Angeles, Zacatecas; Huejucar, Jalisco; Guadalupe, Zacatecas; and Tlaltenango, Zacatecas. In 1923, he returned to Colotlan where he was also vice-rector of the conciliar seminary.

A well-known priest, he dedicated himself to his ministry with enthusiasm. He was also a notable preacher, moving many to the sacrament of confession with his words. His enthusiasm led to the growth of the committees of the Catholic Association of Mexican Youth (ACJM in Spanish) in that region.

Overworked and needing refuge, he agreed to stay in a house in the country in December 1926. The following January 30, Father Correa was arrested by a group of federal army soldiers, under the orders of Jose Contreras and based on an accusation by Jose Encarnacion Salas. Taken to Fresnillo, Zacatecas, he was held at the police station and later in the municipal jail. Four days later, he was sent to Durango.

On February 5, Father Correa was jailed at the conciliar seminary which had been transformed into a military headquarters. Hours later, he appeared before General Eulogio Ortiz who ordered him to hear the confessions of rebels who were sentenced to die. After complying with the order and encouraging the condemned men to die honorably, the general ordered him to violate the sacramental seal and reveal matters that were divulged during the confessions. “I will never do that,” was the priest’s response. When the infuriated general threatened to shoot him, Father Correa responded “You may do so, but you ignore the fact, General, that a priest must keep the secret of confession. I am ready to die.”

At dawn the next day, February 6, a group of soldiers took him to the eastern graveyard. Before entering, in a lonely spot covered with grass, the priest was killed in a hail of bullets. The soldiers abandoned his body, which remained there for three days without burial. Today, his relics are kept in the Cathedral of Durango.

Why Vatican City Has a National Railway

From It's History

Vatican City is smaller than most American golf courses — yet buried inside its ancient walls is a fully functioning national railway. When Italy and the Vatican signed the Lateran Treaty in 1929, a clause buried in Article 6 required Italy to build the Holy See its own rail connection to the national network. The reason was not ceremonial: a state that cannot receive goods without crossing its neighbour's territory is not truly independent, and Vatican City, with no farmland or industry, depended entirely on Italy for everything. What followed was one of the most complex feats of precision engineering of its era — a purpose-built viaduct decorated with Fascist emblems, a station clad in white travertine marble designed by the architect of the Vatican Museums' famous spiral staircase, and a 53-foot iron gate that takes nearly a minute to slide open in the ancient stone wall. For decades, one man ran the entire operation single-handed, averaging one freight train per day. Today the line still runs — though mostly as a Saturday tourist service. This is the story of the world's most expensive railway per foot of track, and why it was worth every lira.

Pope Leo, Trump and Liberation Theology

An examination of what may be the major difference between His Holiness and President Trump, simply a matter of theology. Liberation theology on the part of Leo and God knows what on the part of Trump.

From One Peter Five

By Fr Romano Tommasi, SLD

Leo and Trump is explained by Liberation Theology.

On March 8, 2025, an historic event occurred in Christianity: An American-born citizen of the United States of America was elected pope. Avoiding an address to his fellow citizens in a familial language and warm manner (that is, avoiding English), he greeted his people of Peru in Spanish. In light of Liberation theology’s critique of structural oppression extended in later scholarship to include linguistic domination, global languages—especially English—are alleged to mediate economic power and exclude marginalized communities from full participation. Therefore it is worthwhile investigating the current papacy’s symbolic actions in solidarity with the marginalized of Peru (for real solidarity would have already changed Vatican economic structures by now as I outline in my article: “Liberationist Bishop Reinaldo Nann’s Defense of Pachamama and Pope Leo XIV”).[1]

The Urbi et Orbi address could  plausibly be signaling the preferential option for the poor (Spanish-speaking Peruvians) to the exclusion of American citizenry (identified with an elitist language and culture, representing private ownership of much of the means of production privately). Americans are symbolic of the economic system identified as capitalism by Medellín and Puebla (as the Soviet Union and China do). This first papal act and others can serve as cases to be examined under the praxis of Liberation Theology. The decision to address Spanish-speaking Peruvians rather than English-speaking audiences may be read symbolically within a broader theological framework that privileges the historical experience of marginalized communities. The question before us is whether such symbolic gestures reflect deeper methodological commitments rooted in Liberation Theology (e.g., the case of Vatican finances being radically shifted toward an option for the poor)?

The present inquiry, with the background and instrumentalization of Pachamama by Augustinian friars in Peru, considers certain papal actions in the light of a Marxist-laden analysis dominating Peruvian theology from 1968 until the fall of the Soviet Union. It is the opinion of this author that Pachamamais not going away, as minted Vatican coins in her honor presage: Liberation theology remnants – even while Catholic populations shrink and disappear in Peru – still exercise an impressive theoretical and moral pressure in church and political institutions.

The prevalence of Marxist ideology in South America in the 1960s led the South American bishops (CELAM) to publish the 1968 Medellín and 1989 Puebla documents containing a limited amount of Marxist language.Because the published versions of these documents demanded an editorial review (recognitio) and permission to publish (nihil obstat) by Popes Paul VI and John Paul II, the language was toned down and was corrected to meet Vatican requirements of orthodoxy.

Major figures like the father of Liberation Theology, Gustavo Gutiérrez, and later Latin American thinkers believe the following : “Theology must arise from the lived experience and language of the poor (“el pueblo”), not from imported, abstract, or elite systems.” This creates a tension within Marxist analysis (which is non-native and technical, written by a German academic) and local indigenous and Patois Spanish languages of the uneducated. Naturally, seminary-educated clergy are tasked to create a theological language for a local community of marginalized with no dictionaries but is shaped day to day by their experience of injustice and voicelessness within the Catholic Church and South-American political systems of corruption.

Evidence from journalists continues to grow, demonstrating Fr. Prevost’s role in this localized Liberation Theology and Marxist instrumentalization of Pachamama. Leo XIV should  ideally encourage transparency where each Catholic journalist, “living in a decisive moment of his historical process” (que vive un momento decisivo de su proceso histórico),[2] in virtue of his “infinite dignity,” needs to responsibly confront the Church’s emergency situation of semantic drift in universal theology. What ought to be treated as supra-cultural or universal is non-negotiable dogma, but it is now being attenuated to emergency praxis that is historically conditioned for the marginalized of a determined area.

The undefined local-lived theology of isolated locales of Peru is being normalized for worldwide Christianity (a theological Procrustean bed). Decades of institutional-gradual drift from scientific principles and definitions of theology in seminary formation (theory) has led to intermediate comprises and ambiguities that are now surfacing in the full implications by “squircle” terminology (e.g., dignitas infinita). This can serve to explain why the Vatican is forced into a series of retroactive-continuity (retconning) documents, viz., magisterial clarifications.

The Post-Conciliar breakdown in teaching scientific, probable, and plausible methods of theological reasoning (ignoring Canon Law) leads to predictable results in liturgy (praxis). Actions like Pachamamamerely betray a conscience formed by malleable principles, outside the hermeneutic of continuity. Even Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez-Merino Díaz, OP, founder of Liberation theology, clearly admits his shared principles with Thomistic scientific theology, which he reverenced: (1.) Ideas must come before actions, (2.) Faith is more than just a mental assertion “x is true” but it specifies the direction of one’s practical actions, and (3.) Systematic thought about God and creation comes first, and then actions align with theory.[3] Hence, whether Pope Leo XIV were to embrace (as a canon lawyer) Roman law and its theological method (viz., Thomism – technically required in seminaries), or the Father of Liberation theology, Fr. Gustavo’s Thomistic principle, the pope would welcome interpretation of his actions or praxis in light of prior faith commitments, as an adequate gauge.

Journalistic praxis (quick emergency analysis leading to on the spot reports), in Liberationist terms, should result in an emergency conditioned response for a particular locale: Fr. Prevost preformed actions that undergirded his belief, according to the reasoning of both St. Thomas and conceded by Fr. Gustavo. As far as praxis of journalists, they have helpfully led to an interview by a former Augustinian priest with first-hand knowledge of the persons and ecclesial meetings in Peru and Ecuador relevant to the L’affaire de la Pachamama and the person of Fr. Prevost.[4]

Leo XIV’s background in Liberationist Peru, active support of Liberationists priests, and his participation in Pachamama can easily be fact checked, as many of the clergy are still alive and available, as too are their projects. In-depth journalism will be required to fully contextualize Fr. Prevost’s degree of integration into the Marxist milieu. This is a journalistic disideratum and even a duty (kathêkon). Yet, greater geopolitical policy decisions of the Vatican may be explainable: this papal administration’s opposition to the burgeoning free-market economy in the United States (changing direction from the New Deal 2.0) is a case in point. Some study cases include the reform of the Pontifical Council of Life, Migration Policy, and a Moral Moratorium on Mining.

There was a peculiar ire that Leo XIV’s papacy uniquely reserved for the Trump administration (by comparison, the human rights violations in North Korea are unaddressed and there is no Vatican risk to property or faithful in that country with no Catholic population). This animus may not at all be religiously motivated based on the scientific conclusions of Catholic moral theology, but can be profitably explained by Marxist-informed opposition to Trump falling outside the so-called “preferential option for the poor,” which includes opposition to free-markets (even if Liberation theologians in the economic circle of Pachamama tend toward an historically flawed conflation of the US system with post-mercantilist economics in South America; Liberationists misname this as capitalism).[5]

In brief, Spanish bullion-based economy, laws forcing colonies only to trade with Spain, and state sponsorship of monopolies are the very economic principles rejected by the American experiment in its revolution, and by the current administration in Washington. The failure of Marxist analysis, mentioned above in the Medellín documents by the South American bishops in 1968, confused free-market aspirations in post-colonial Latin America with real South American economic praxis (yet another historical error in Liberationist historical-economic analysis; grave for Marxist theology, as its locus theologicus par excellence).

In essence, Liberation theologians of the economic circle of Pachamama (see below) lacked the sophistication of Marxism even though it used Marxist language. For example, post-colonial Latin American governments, almost without exception, continued monopolies, heavy taxation, and agrarian dependency on exports – like Spain – all while failing to develop industry. Peru retained key structural features of the colonial economy—especially export dependency and state-mediated monopolies—while formally abandoning the Spanish mercantilist framework. Here, a sloppy categorical error likely accounts for the Liberation theological odium directed toward the USA on a theoretical analysis.

Given Liberation Theology’s penchant to dismiss definitions before action in an emergency, this haste bleeds into its economic analysis making its free market economic analysis chaotic, and misidentifying what really happened in South America to impoverish millions: state monopolies and tax burdens that prevented industrialization and innovation. This also violates Fr. Gustavo’s critique of Scholasticism, like Marxism, that newer and more practical sciences (economics, sociology, etc.) have developed and are useful for theology.[6] As we will see below, a member of the economic circle of Pachamama makes rudimentary mistakes within the realm of these endorsed sciences (by Fr. Gustavo), by conflating post-colonial Latin American structures with free markets, so that mercantilism is conflated with capitalism.

Liberation Economics of the Pachamama Circle

Fr. Joaquín García Sánchez, who taught at the Pontifical University of Peru (died 2024), explains academically the Pachamama politico-economic circle. Fr. Joaquín published an academic paper nearly contemporary with the 1995 incident and provides explicit Marxist principles that overlap with today’s Vatican positions in opposition to the government and economy of the USA. Fr. Joaquin, Fr. Prevost’s concelebrant in the l’affaire de la Pachamama, argues the following in his Marxist analysis leading to ecological action or praxis:[7]

1. The Amazon region is interpreted through what is called a hermeneutical key or controlling idea: Spanish conquest is but a different species of today’s resource and mineral extractors. They are both members of the generic category of oppressor. Fr. Joaquín looks at the historical oppression of colonial conquest as having its successor in capitalism.
2. Specifically, the modern development of oil is but a continuation of the colonial search for “Eldorado” and greed. (Fr. Joaquín’s Pachamama circle would thereby view the Trump administration’s “drill, baby, drill” or energy independence policy as among the greatest evils of our time.)
3. Fr. Joaquin takes a radical anti-Fr. Gustavo turn, by a total rejection of human reason: “The rigid Cartesian rationality … tending to dominate nature and to destroy it.”[8]
4. In undisciplined form, the Liberationist conflates two economic modes into the same system: “capitalism = mercantile extraction” (capitalismo extractivo mercantil).

Notice in #3, above, we can see that a radical form of Liberation theology scoffs at rationality, caricaturing it as Cartesian (avoiding perhaps a direct conflict with Fr. Gustavo’s respect for Aquinas’s rationality). This helps explain why Fr. Joaquin and his circle fell into Pachamama superstition. As Fr. Gustavo warns the practitioners of real Liberation theology:

Theology, insofar as it is critical reflection, thus fulfills a liberating function for both the individual and the Christian community, shielding them from all forms of fetishism and idolatry. It also guards against a pernicious and diminishing narcissism. Theology, understood in this way, plays a necessary and enduring role in liberation   from every form of religious alienation—often fostered by the ecclesiastical institution itself—which hinders an authentic approach to the Word of the Lord.[9]

The circle of Pachamama jumped the guardrails that were written to govern a disciplined practice of Liberation Theology. The direction of ecotheology in Fr. Joaquin’s work is open to a Liberationist critique of imposing Fetishism and idolatry.

Conclusion: For Fr. Joaquin, capitalism leads to extravagance and commodities, and is thus destructive. What is violent (destructive), is always morally illegitimate. From here we can glean what the reforms of the Pontifical Academy of Life under Pope Leo XIV may presage:[10] ecology grants life by undermining a capitalist commodity-based productivity. The allowance for pro-abortion membership in the academy by Pope Francis can be interpreted as successful reconciliation of desperate actions of the poor with traditional Catholic morality. Liberationist principle of praxis, then reflection, should not be the ideal under normal conditions, but unjust economic systems create extremes.

The Pachamama Circle and Migration

This framework helps explain Pope Leo XIV’s response, when he was recently asked to give his opinion on  Cardinal Cupich giving a lifetime achievement award to a pro-abortion politician. Pope Leo responded. In his remarks in the cited article, Cardinal Cupich defended his position thus:

The recognition of his defense of immigrants at this moment, when they are subjected to terror and harm, is not something to be regretted but a reflection that the Lord stands profoundly with both immigrants who are in danger and those who work to protect them.

Pope Leo XIV’s support of Cupich ran thus: “I think that it is very important to look at the overall work that the senator has done during, if I’m not mistaken, 40 years of service in the United States Senate.”

Understanding Liberation Theology provides us with a key for Pope Leo rationally supporting Cupich. Migrants are the extreme poor, fleeing injustice and oppression. Prolife is, therefore, pro-migrant and is part of the solution to protect life at conception. Pastoral accompaniment of those in dire circumstances or “option for the poor” acknowledges the injustice that constrains the poor who abort. Accompanying the person on the margins provides data on how to formulate a theology for his concrete circumstances.

This process helps account for retcon theology that the Vatican has produced under Pope Francis and Leo. First, a quick analysis is made, as a marginalized group is helped, and then only is a theology formed to provide a framework for understanding what applied in the local context. This theology is adjusted in official policy, as needed, to connect it to foreign, European conclusions of scientific theology.

The economic circle of Pachamama importantly included Fr. John Lydon, who heads now Villanova Cabrini Institute on Immigration at Villanova (Augustinian University). The current calendar of social justice events shows the university prioritizing Liberation Theology and indigenous empowerment in the Amazon. Fr. Prevost’s circle and Vatican political focus on the Trump administration can be rationally explained through the prism of Liberation Theology, whereas these same positions appear to many commentators to be erratic and devoid of a logical unity.

The Pachamama Circle and the Vatican Moral Moratorium on Mining[11]

In Fr. Joaquin’s contemporary publication with the worship of the Pachamama circle, he teaches unabashedly that economics must be theologically-colored. Economic systems for the circle, as for Fr. Joaquin, are moral-spiritual structures. Nature, as such, is sacralized and requires rituals and reverence.

A principal member of Fr. Prevost’s circle of Pachamama, Fr. Joachin, published an academic study that provides us with possible insight into the Vatican’s recent moratorium morally imposed by will of Leo XIV on mining. Ecotheology of the Peruvian sort is completely aligned with the Vatican policy, where more recent scientific studies publish cases of Pachamama rituals and shamanic ethics of mining are a precondition for morally mining in the Andean mountains and Amazon, so that only certain methods of mining and relationships with the earth are permitted.[12] Ritual offerings are required in the local version of ecotheology before morally licit mining can begin. What is more, only certain kinds of mining are permitted among indigenous (who are the poor and oppressed within this framework), and all other forms of mining are akin to an ethical violation of Pachamama or the sacred female land that is being raped.[13]

Again, like Fr. Joaquin’s process: Spanish conquest → capitalism → oil extraction = one continuous oppression. This framework—present in missionary and theological reflections on the Amazon—interprets economic activity through a moral and symbolic lens that closely aligns with indigenous cosmologies in which land is not merely a resource but a sacred reality. In Andean contexts, Pachamama functions as a normative framework governing the moral conditions under which extraction (e.g., mining) is permitted, blessed, or resisted. This indicates that economic activity is not treated as neutral or purely technical, but as embedded within a symbolic and theological order that governs its moral legitimacy. Once we use the answer key of Liberation Theology as the lens in the economic circle of Pachamama of Fr. Prevost, we have a rational system to plausibly explain Vatican policies against modern industry, seen as exploitative in virtue of private greed and ownership of the means of production driving profiteering and impoverishing those on the margins (despite the caveat of their crude economic analysis that does not seriously engage economically-aligned science valued by Fr. Gustavo).

Conclusion: Geopolitical Landscape of Pope Leo XIV’s Circle of Pachamama vis-a-vis “Drill baby drill” and “The Green New Scam”

I now turn to a plausible interpretation of geopolitical interventions of the Holy See based upon the circle of Pachamama: the Vatican would not, through the optic of the circle of Pachamama, participate in the Board of Peace (founded by President Trump). A capitalistic greed-based economy is diametrically opposed to peace, since a seamless-garment pro-life theology includes ecology (viz., ecotheology) and the sacrality of nature and protection of the indigenous. The Trump Board of Peace is chaired, from this perspective, by Trump, whose policy is frontloaded with “extractive mercantilism,” i.e., environmental violence in oil and mineral extraction (exemplified by his recent transformation, e.g., of Venezuela).

By the Trump administration pushing oil exploitation in the Andean and Amazonian locales, it is morally aligned with social sin and is diametrically opposed to the option for the poor. The additional fight against the Trump administration on the free movement of peoples without borders, a hallmark of the circle of Pachamama at Villanova, Trump would be interpreted as inherently anti-life. The seamless-garment approach to pro-life issues led Cardinal Prevost to criticize the 2nd Amendment and Vice-President JD Vance regularly and consistently.

Yet, all this Trump-talk sounds political, not theological. However, I remind the reader: the circle of Pachamama does not distinguish politics, economics, and theology. Economics is sacral and the very conditions under which the necessity of Liberation Theology arises. The approach of the Vatican has and will (if this optic is correct) continuously focus on politico-economic matters under the headlines of “pro-life” and “theology,” because its South American administrators and curial membership (imported from Latin America) has been formed, by and large, through Medellín and Puebla, but without the guardrails of John Paul II being meaningfully observed against Marxism.

So, Fr. Joaquin, a bona fide professor at the Pontifical University of Peru, publishes his ecotheology openly and even goes beyond the strict guardrails first penned by the father of Liberation Theology, Fr. Gustavo (as Pachamama itself incorporates what Fr. Gustavo calls fetishism and idolatry, which is opposed to his version of Liberation Theology).[14] However, Liberation Theology is historical and contextual, not definitional, and is constantly in flux, interpreting new emergencies by new analyses and new praxes.

The innovation of Pope Francis, interpreted here hypothetically as a controlling idea for Pope Leo XIV, would be to universalize a local emergency theology and to impose an ad hoc preference for the poor in Andean Peru to be universally applicable to geopolitics. The New Green Deal, ecology, Global Warming, and Climate Change would all constitute apocalyptic worldwide emergencies. As such, even here, there is space for the Holy See to see the emergency as no longer local but a worldwide cataclysm in fieri.

Under these conditions, Liberation Theology is no longer ad hoc, but a ready action-based response to a cosmic emergency, justifying worldwide application. In Fr. Gustavo’s writings, there is no opt-out clause for small communities from the option for the poor; it is an obligation. The Medellín and Puebla documents of CELAM are not as extreme, applying moral pressure for all communities in their church to participate in the process.

From this, we see how and why the synodality and other practices of the circle of Pachamama ought to affect and include traditionalists, Opus Dei, and other conservative groups in the Church. There is no opt out when the emergency is worldwide, and we are all along for the ride.

The value of this analysis lies in its predictive quality, which is falsifiable. If future actions of the Holy See continue in this direction, politically animated by a rational lens of Liberation theology, then what I have argued here as merely plausible begins to look statistically probable. We should expect the following:

• prioritization of marginalized groups in symbolic acts
• moral critique of extractive economic systems
• integration of ecological concerns into theological language
• expansion of pastoral accommodation grounded in concrete situations

These patterns may manifest in various geopolitical contexts, but the framework that I present operates at the level of interpretation rather than partisan alignment. Study of the writings of the circle of Pachamama may be key to understanding the commitments of Father and Cardinal Prevost and the policies of Pope Leo XIV more deeply and add nuance and even correction to my prima facie reading of the circle. The predictive power in this analysis will help establish its insight when the Vatican systematically intervenes in US and European politics on questions that are traceable to preoccupations of the members of the circle of Pachamama, whose opera completa need to be studied in detail. This is a key moment for traditionalists, as Pachamama and its circle might prove useful to predict what conservative groups’ futures can expect from the current administration in both official statements and praxis, to speak nothing of geopolitics and the policies of the Trump administration (a central focus of Pope Leo XIV perhaps in his convictions of the universal application of ecotheology in his option for the poor).

Photo credit

---

[1] A true Liberation-Theology is proven by praxis, not by words by the metrics of its own framework, see my linked article.

[2] Taken from the Liberationist flavored Medellín document of CELAM (1968).

[3] Gustavo Gutiérrez-Merino Díaz, OP, Teología de la liberación: perspectivas (Lima: CEP,1971), 5, 8-9: “Es evidente que el pensamiento también es necesario para la acción…”; (“la inteligencia de la fe aparece… no de la simple afirmación… sino de un compromiso… de una postura ante la vida“; “La teología viene después, es acto segundo.“

[4] NB, the priest appears to be a professional canonist and an aggrieved party in canonical disputes with alleged allies to Fr. Prevost.

[5] This involvement in the internal matters of state of a sovereign nation enforcing its own constitutional law is highly inflammatory and has continued.

[6] Gustavo Gutiérrez-Merino Díaz, OP, Teología de la liberación: perspectivas (Lima: CEP,1971), 30.

[7] Joaquin Gracia Sanchez, “V Centenario y amazonia: Historia de un despojo,” Estudios Agustinianos 30 (1995): 517-540.

[8] “La rígida racionalidad cartesiana… tiende a dominar la naturaleza y a destruirla.”

[9] Gustavo Gutiérrez-Merino Díaz, OP, Teología de la liberación: perspectivas (Lima: CEP,1971), 30. Emphasis added.

[10] Sánchez, op. cit., at 521-522

[11] Joshua McElwee, “Vatican launches project encouraging disinvestment from mining sector,” Reuters (March 20, 2026).

[12] Eric Hirsch, ‘Investment’s rituals: “Grassroots” extractivism and the making of an indigenous gold mine in the Peruvian Andes,’ Geoforum (Volume 82, 2017), 259-267.

[13] Guillermo Salas Carreño, “Mining and the living materiality of mountains in Andean societies,” Journal of Material Culture (Dec 2016), volume 22, no. 2.

[14] I speculate that this would be true of accepting the original meaning and culture of the indigenous for Pachamama without qualification. As a totem it must be transvaluated into a symbol of anti-colonialism to escape being a mere cultural relic of an underdeveloped economic system of the indigenous that is presumably not yet capacitated to resist capitalism. Once it becomes a symbol of Liberation, then it is no longer fetishism. The question then, is whether the Pachamama circle was a case of interreligious dialogue (thus, participating in fetishism) or a capacitated group of indigenous who already were inculcated with the value of the Pachamama contra capitalism.

Feria in Paschaltide

Today's Holy Mass from SSPX ANZ-District. You may follow the Mass at Divinum Officium.

Thursday, the Octave of the Ascension ~ Dom Prosper Guéranger

Thursday, the Octave of the Ascension

From Dom Prosper Guéranger's Liturgical Year:

O King of glory, Lord of hosts, who didst this day ascend in triumph above all the heavens! leave us not orphans, but send upon us the Spirit of truth, promised by the Father, alleluia.

We have already seen how the Ascension of our Emmanuel won him the empire over our understanding: it was the triumph of Faith. The same mystery gave him a second victory: the victory of love, which makes him reign in our hearts. For eighteen hundred years, in whom have men believed, firmly and universally, except in Jesus? In what else have men agreed, except in the dogmas of faith? What countless errors has not this divine torch dispelled? What light has it not given to the nations that received it? and in what darkness has it not left those, which rejected it after having once received it?

In like manner, no one has been loved as our Jesus has been, ever since the day of his Ascension: no one is so loved now or ever will be, as He. But, that he might thus win our love, he had to leave us, just as he had to do in order to secure our faith. Let us return to our text, that we may get deeper into the beautiful mystery. It is expedient for you that I go! (John 16:7) Before the Ascension, the disciples were as inconstant in their love, as they were in their faith. Jesus could not trust them. But, no sooner had he left them, than they became warmly devoted to him. Instead of complaining at their bereavement, they returned full of joy to Jerusalem. The thought of their Master’s triumph made them forget their own loss, and they hastened, as he bade them, to the Cenacle, where they were to be endued with power from on high. Watch these men during the subsequent years; examine what their conduct was from that time to the day of their death; count, if you can, their acts of devotedness in the arduous labor of preaching the Gospel; and say, if any other motive than love for their Master, could have enabled them to do what they did? With what cheerfulness did they not drink his chalice? (Matthew 20:23) With what raptures did they not hail his cross, when they saw it being prepared for themselves?

But let us not stop at these first witnesses; they had seen Jesus, and heard him, and touched him: (1 John 1:1) let us turn to those who came after them, and knew him by faith only: let us see if the love, which burned in the hearts of the Apostles, has been kept up by the Christians of the past eighteen centuries. First of all, there is the contest of martyrdom, which has never been altogether interrupted since the Gospel began to be preached. The opening campaign lasted three hundred years. What was it that induced so many millions to suffer, not only patiently, but gladly, every torture that cruelty could devise? Was it not their ambition to testify how much they loved their Jesus? Let us not forget how these frightful ordeals were cheerfully gone through, not only by men hardened to suffering, but also by delicate women, by young girls, yea even by little children. Let us call to mind the sublime answers they gave to their persecutors, whereby they evinced their generous ardor to repay the death of Jesus by their own. The martyrs of our own times, in China, Japan, the Korea, and elsewhere, have repeated, without knowing it, the very same words to their judges and executioners as were addressed to the Proconsuls of the third and fourth centuries by the martyrs of those days.

Yes, our divine King who has ascended into heaven, is loved as no other ever was or could be. Think of those millions of generous souls, who, that they might be exclusively his, have despised all earthly affections, and would know no other love than his. Every age — even our own, in spite of all its miseries — has produced souls of this stamp, and only God knows how many.

Our Emmanuel has been, and to the end of time, will ever be loved on this earth. Have we not reason to say so, when we consider how many there have always been, even among the wealthiest ones of the world, who, in order that they might bear a resemblance to the Babe of Bethlehem, have given up everything they possessed? What an irresistible proof of the same truth have we not in the countless sacrifices of self-love and pride, made with a view to imitate the obedience of the God-Man on earth? And what else but an ardent love of Jesus could have prompted those heroic acts of mortification and penance, whereby the Sufferings of his Passion have been emulated and, as the Apostle says, filled up? (Colossians 1:24)

But grand as all this is, it was not enough to satisfy man’s devoted love of his absent Lord. Jesus had said, at least, implicitly: Whatsoever you do to the least of your brethren, you do it to me. (Matthew 25:40) Love is ever quick at catching the meaning of our Redeemer’s words. It took advantage of these, and saw in them another means for reaching its Jesus, —reaching him through the poor. And as the worst of poverties is the ignorance of divine truths, because it would make a man poor and miserable for eternity, therefore have there risen up, in every age, zealous apostles, who, bidding farewell to home and fatherland, have carried the light of the Gospel to them that sat in darkness and in the shadow of death. They heeded not the fatigues or the perils of such a mission: what cared they for all these things, if they could but make Jesus known and honored, and loved, by one poor savage or Hindu?

But what of those other poor ones — the sick in whom Jesus suffers? Fear not: he is too much loved to be forgotten there. Once let the Church be free enough to develop her plans of charity, and there will be an institute of relief for every class of sufferers. The poor, the sick, all will be cared for and comforted. There will be vocations to charity, to meet every want; and women, too, urged by the love of their Divine Lord, will deem it an honor to be the nurses and attendants of a suffering or dying Lazarus. The world itself is in admiration at their heroism; and though it knows not the divine principle which originates these charitable institutions, yet is it obliged to acknowledge the extraordinary good they effect.

But man’s observation can only reach the exterior; the interior is the far grander reality, and it is beyond his notice. What we have said so far is, therefore, but a very feeble description of the ardor wherewith our Lord Jesus Christ has been, and still is, loved on this earth. Let us picture to ourselves the millions of Christians who have lived since the first foundation of the Church. Many, it is true, have had the misfortune to be unfaithful to the object of their existence; but, what an immense number have loved Jesus with all their heart, and soul, and strength!

Some have never flagged in their love; others have needed a conversion from vice or tepidity, returned to him, and slept in the kiss of peace. Count, if you can, the virtuous actions, the heroic sacrifices, of those countless devoted servants of his, who are to be arrayed before him in the Valley of Josaphat. His memory alone can hold and tell the stupendous total of what has been done. This well-nigh infinite aggregate of holy deeds and thoughts, — from the seraphic ardor of the greatest Saint, down to the cup of cold water given in the name of the Redeemer, what is it all but the ceaseless hymn of our earth to its beloved Absent One, its never-forgotten Jesus? Who is the man, how dear soever his memory may be, for whom we would be devoted, or sacrifice our interests, or lay down our lives, especially if he had been ten or twenty ages gone from us? Who is that great Dead, the sound of whose name can make the hearts of men vibrate with love, in every country, and in every generation? It is Jesus, who died, who rose again, who ascended into heaven.

But we humbly confess, O Jesus, that it was necessary for us that thou shouldst go from us, in order that our faith might soar up to thee in heaven, and that our hearts, being thus enlightened, might burn with thy love. Enjoy thine Ascension, O thou King of Angels and men! We, in our exile, will feast on the fruits of the great mystery, waiting for it to be fulfilled in ourselves. Enlighten those poor blind infidels, whose pride will not permit them to recognize thee, notwithstanding these most evident proofs. They continue in their errors concerning thee, though they have such superabundant testimony of thy Divinity, in the faith and love thou hast received in every age. The homage offered thee by the universe represented, as it has ever been, by the chief nations of the earth, and by the most virtuous and learned men of each generation — all this is, to these unbelievers, as though it had never happened. Who are they to be compared with such a cloud of faithful witnesses? Have mercy on them, Lord! save them from their pride; then will they unite with us in saying: “It was indeed expedient for this world to lose thy visible presence, Jesus! for never were thy greatness, thy power, and thy Divinity, so recognized and loved, as when thou didst depart from us. Glory, then, be to the mystery of thine Ascension, whereby, as the Psalmist prophesied, thou receivedst gifts, that Thou mightest bestow them upon men!” (Psalm 67:19)

We will take a Hymn today from the Greek Church: it is the one she sings in honor of our Redeemer’s triumph, at her Evening Office of Ascension Day.

HYMN
(In Assumptione Domini, ad magnum Vespertinum)

The Lord ascended into heaven, that he might send the Paraclete into this world. The heavens prepared his throne, and the clouds his Ascension. The angels are lost in wonder at seeing man exalted above them. The Father receives Him who is in his own bosom, His co-eternal Son. The Holy Ghost speaks this bidding to all his angels: “Lift up your gates, ye princes!” Clap your hands, all ye people, for Christ hath ascended to the heaven where he has ever been.

The Cherubim were in amazement at thine Assumption, Lord! They beheld thee ascending upon the clouds, thee their God, who sittest upon themselves. We glorify thee, for compassionate is thy mercy: Glory be to thee!

Seeing thy risings upon the holy mountains, O Christ, thou brightness of the Father’s glory! we tire not in praise of the brilliant beauty of thy Face. We adore thy Passion, we honor thy Resurrection, we glorify thy noble Assumption! Have mercy on us!

When the apostles saw thee, Lord, raised up to the clouds, they sighed, and wept and were sad. Thus to thee, Christ, thou giver of Life, did they speak their sorrow: “Thou art merciful, Lord! then leave not orphans us thy servants, whom, in thy goodness, thou hast loved; but send upon us, as thou hast promised, thy most Holy Spirit, who will enlighten our Souls.”

Having, Lord, fulfilled the mystery of the dispensation, thou didst lead thy Disciples to Mount Olivet; when, lo! thou ascendedst into the firmament of heaven. O thou, that for my sake, wast made poor as I, and ascendedst to the realm which thou hadst never left,  send thy most Holy Spirit to enlighten our souls!

Living as Man with them that were on earth, thou, sweetest Jesus! wast not separated from thy Father’s bosom. On this day, thou wast taken up in glory from Mount Olivet; and mercifully raising up our fallen nature, thou placedst it on thy Father’s throne. The heavenly host of angels stood in astonished admiration at the sight of the prodigy; and, seized with awe, they celebrated in songs of praise thy love for man. Together with them, we also, who dwell on earth, do glorify thy coming down unto us and thine ascending up from us, and thus do we pray: O thou that, in thine Assumption, filledst the Disciples and thy Mother with infinite joy; vouchsafe, through their prayers, and thine own great mercy, to give us a share in the joy of thine elect.

As a close to this glorious Octave, we offer the eighth and last of the beautiful Prayers given by the Mozarabic Breviary in honor of our Lord’s Ascension.

PRAYER

Christ Jesus! our God of dread majesty, and our King! at whose birth the angels and shepherds gave glory; at whose victory over the author of death all nations clapped their hands and were filled with joy; at whose ascending, with thy trophies, into heaven, the apostles were perfected in their faith: grant that we, also, with fervent faith, may sing our canticles of praise in honor of the mysteries of our Redemption and of Thine Ascension and that, with the princes of Thy people, we may, by our faithful service, be well-pleasing to the God of Abraham. Amen.