Over 100 Catholic Leaders Condemn ‘Sacrilegious and Superstitious Acts’ at Amazon Synod

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DETROIT (ChurchMilitant.com) - More than 100 distinguished Catholic clergy and lay scholars from across the world have signed a petition to protest "Pope Francis' sacrilegious acts" at last month's Amazon Synod.

The declaration condemns the "sacrilegious and superstitious acts" of the "successor of St. Peter in connection with the recent Amazon Synod held in Rome."

"With immense sorrow and deep love for the Chair of Peter, we beg Almighty God to spare the guilty members of His Church on earth the punishment that they deserve for these terrible sins," the signatories declare.

"We respectfully ask Pope Francis to repent publicly and unambiguously of these objectively grave sins and of all the public offences that he has committed against God and the true religion, and to make reparation for these offences," they continue.

"We respectfully ask all the bishops of the Catholic Church to offer fraternal correction to Pope Francis for these scandals," they add, "and to warn their flocks that according to the divinely revealed teaching of the Catholic faith, they will risk eternal damnation if they follow his example of offending against the First Commandment."

Among the signatories are Gloria, Princess of Thurn und Taxis of Regensburg, Germany and Abp. Carlo Maria Viganò, who went on to say that clergy and laity alike "cannot remain indifferent to the idolatrous acts that we witnessed." Viganò urged Catholics to "rediscover the meaning of prayer, reparation and penance, of fasting, of little sacrifices, of the little flowers, and above all of silent and prolonged adoration before the Blessed Sacrament."

The petition explicitly mentions six "sacrileges" that occurred during the synod:

• On October 4, Pope Francis attended an act of idolatrous worship of the pagan goddess Pachamama.
• He allowed this worship to take place in the Vatican Gardens, thus desecrating the vicinity of the graves of the martyrs and of the church of the Apostle Peter.
• He participated in this act of idolatrous worship by blessing a wooden image of Pachamama.
• On October 7, the idol of Pachamama was placed in front of the main altar at St. Peter's and then carried in procession to the Synod Hall. Pope Francis said prayers in a ceremony involving this image and then joined in this Procession.
• When wooden images of this pagan deity were removed from the church of Santa Maria in Traspontina, where they had been sacrilegiously placed, and thrown into the Tiber by Catholics outraged by this profanation of the church, Pope Francis, on October 25, apologized for their removal and another wooden image of Pachamama was returned to the church. Thus, a new profanation was initiated.
• On October 27, in the closing Mass for the synod, he accepted a bowl used in the idolatrous worship of Pachamama and placed it on the altar.

Also mentioned in the petition is the "Document on Human Fraternity," signed by Pope Francis on February 2019 and co-signed by Ahmed Al-Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque.

Within it the following is stated: "The pluralism and the diversity of religions, colour, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings. This divine wisdom is the source from which the right to freedom of belief and the freedom to be different derives."

Most concerned Catholics are troubled by the notion that "all religions are willed by God," with no nuance for the distinction between God's positive will and permissive will.

Sacred theology makes this difference, the latter being what God allows as a result of human (and angelic) sin and free will. No such distinction was made in this document signed by the pope.

The Church recognizes the effects of original sin in man's losing sight of true religion, and has always followed Christ in praying in for the unity of all God's people (John 17), since there is only one mediator between God and man for the salvation of all (John 14:6; 1 Timothy 2:5): Jesus Christ.

Different aspects of the Amazon Synod have already been condemned as idolatrous or sacrilegious by Cdl. Walter Brandmüller, Cdl. Gerhard Müller, Cdl. Jorge Urosa Savino, Bp. Athanasius Schneider, Bp. Rudolf Voderholzer, Bp. Marian Eleganti, and Cdl. Raymond Burke. Likewise, Amazon Bp. José Luis Azcona Hermoso confirmed that "Pachamama" is indeed a pagan goddess, and clearly denounced the prayer rituals performed in the Vatican gardens as "demonic sacrileges."

Pope Francis responded that the small statues were displayed "without idolatrous intentions."

Christopher Manion, Ph.D., director of Humanae Vitae Coalition at the Population Research Institute and one of the signatories, explained to Church Militant his reason for signing: "I signed the petition because only an act by the Holy Father himself can adequately make reparation for the calamitous idolatry that he allowed at the synod."

He added, "Our family prays for him every day, and we will add this intention to our prayers."

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