Episode 1080: The Modernists created a Mayan Rite of Mass - Part 2

So what is this new mayan rite?

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.
Despite the current friendliness with Francis, the San Cristóbal diocese had been for decades a source of concern in Rome, due to its syncretism, community-based decision-making, leftist political activism, and the ordination of hundreds of indigenous permanent deacons whose wives are considered to be part of their ministry, all of which is part of the concept of an “autochthonous church.”
Arizmendi wrote this year that “a little over two years ago, Pope Francis gave me this book: Papa Francesco e il Messale Romano per le Diocesi dello Zaire,[here a Vatican News report on the book] in which the process to reach the approval of the African rite of the current Democratic Republic of the Congo in the Mass is narrated, and encouraged me to follow this path of inculturation of the indigenous rites in the liturgical celebration, not only of the Mass, but of the entire Catholic liturgy.”

The undersecretary of the Dicastery for Divine Worship, who is involved in the planning of this new rite, also encourages this process. Bishop Aurelio García Macías is being quoted in a recent media report as saying that the Mexican bishops have “invited us to feel involved in this process and this is to be appreciated because it is an example of the collaboration of the churches’ work.” He called the recent meeting with the Mexican bishops “a personal enrichment for me because I believe that the local experience of San Cristóbal de Las Casas has discerned, has been able to study, reflect and can be enriched with the universal experience of the Catholic Church.”
Elements of the new Mayan rite of Mass
In light of these high-ranking encouragements coming from Rome, let us now consider more deeply what is being planned in Mexico, and in some cases what has already been implemented at the local level.

The current bishop of the diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Bishop Rodrigo Aguilar Martinez (appointed in 2018 by Pope Francis), described the elements of the new rite of an indigenous Mass with Mayan elements in a March 14 interview.

He calls the new rite the “Roman rite with three main elements of adaptation: They are the prayers led by a ‘principal’ who is a morally upright layman; the office of censing mainly conducted by laywomen, and some [indigenous] thanksgiving dances as a form of prayer at the end of Mass.”
As can already be seen here, this local church is much more led by laymen and by women, the exact ideas now being promoted also by the German bishops’ Synodal Path.
“There are many catechists and permanent deacons, along with their wives, who uphold the faith of these communities,” explained Bishop Rodrigo Aguilar Martinez in the interview, “and there is a well-organized system of positions or services both at the level of their community life and of the Church.”
Here comes in the so-called “principal,” “who is an already mature person, both in his faith and in his person, who is in charge of caring for the harmonious life of the community, and in the liturgy has the role of direct certain prayers with the proper way as expressed by the original peoples,” according to the prelate. This principal is leading the faithful in prayers during this new indigenous Mass that is already implemented in the Chiapas region, with the approval of the Mexican bishops’ conference.
Examples of a Mayan rite of Mass as already practiced in San Cristóbal
Women incensing the altar at different moments of the Mass is also foreseen (as it is being practiced already, for example here at a priestly ordination; here (pictured below) is another example of a woman holding the Mayan incense burner; in this video, around minute 1:37, one can watch an indigenous woman incensing first the altar and then the people).
It is an old office of Mayan women to incense things such as the Mayan altar (here two examples of Mayan shamanesses/ priestesses using the same Mayan incense burner that the women use in the Catholic Church in San Cristóbal); it is being revived here, but it also gives women more liturgical roles on the altar itself. It could be seen as a further preparation for a female diaconate, since, in San Cristóbal de las Casas, the view is that wives of permanent deacons are participating in his ministry.

In this video of a Mass of the San Cristóbal diocese, one can see how the local bishop processes into the church with permanent deacons and their wives at their sides.

Ritual dances, that were part of the Mayan culture, are also foreseen at the end of Mass. Such Mayan ritual dances usually are seen as ways to communicate with the different gods and spirits.

The scholarly World History website describes Mayan dance rituals as follows: “Dance is another overlooked ritual. Dance rituals were performed to communicate with the gods. The dances would feature lavish costumes which depicted the visages of divinities. Often the Maya would wear or include ornaments such as staffs, spears, rattles, scepters, and even live snakes as dance aids. The Maya believed that by dressing and acting as a god, they would be overtaken by the god’s spirit and therefore would be able to communicate with him or her.” Further research would be needed to establish its fuller meaning during a Catholic Mass, but Bishop Rodrigo Aguilar calls this dance a “form of prayer.”

The Earth as “Mother Goddess”
There are many more forms of “inculturation” in this new indigenous rite, as we shall see, but they all relate to the earth as “Mother Goddess” (or pachamama, in another language).

The website Inculturacion.net, on which Cardinal Arizmendi has published several articles, explains this concept as follows:

In the ‘Indian Theology’ the earth is essential, they know her as the Mother Goddess. She has her own personality. She is sacred. She is the subject with whom one speaks and who is worshipped. The earth is the divine fecundity. Plants, especially corn, are the flesh of the gods that have been given to man for his subsistence.

Indian theology
This new liturgy is clearly permeated by Indian Theology as part of Liberation Theology, a theology that the Vatican has previously rejected.

In 2021, for example, the diocesan seminary of San Cristóbal hosted a seminary on Indian Theology with Professor Eleazar Lopez Hernandez, one of the main proponents of this theology who himself has been in conflict with Rome.

One 2019 study of the case of the diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas, written by Dr. Irene Sanchez Franco, quotes Bishop Ruiz as saying that “in myths and in popular religiosity,” there are elements of “social utopia” and “signs of a strategy in groups committed to overcoming the system.”

Still today, the diocesan seminary puts the Mayan religious practices – such as the Mayan Altar – in context with the battle against “injustices.”

It is a clearly leftist political and theological theory. The diocese is actively studying and reviving old Mayan symbols and rituals, as can be seen here in a class posted by the diocesan seminary.