Pachamama Deniers Double Down!

They’ve Invented a Hoax to Explain Away the Scandal You Watched in HD

There’s a new apologetics style on the rise in the Church of Leo. It’s called denialism, and it comes in the form of smiley, thread-ready explanations that explain away every scandal as a misunderstanding, every contradiction as a nuance, and every public sacrilege as a charming cultural misunderstanding.

Take, for instance, the latest entry from a user known as “Pope Respecter.” He claims the Pachamama scandal was a “hoax.” A nothingburger. A figment of traditionalist imagination. He assures us that there was no idolatry, no scandal, and definitely no public ritual honoring a naked fertility idol in the Vatican Gardens.

Let’s take a look at his points and then burn them to the ground.

1. “It was just a logo commissioned by a priest.”

Ah yes. The old Logo Defense™. The idol wasn’t an idol because someone had it carved by a Brazilian artist ten years ago. It’s just a symbol, a modern graphic, like the Diocese of Boise’s annual stewardship campaign.

Never mind that:

• It was naked, pregnant, and earth-mother themed.

• It was bowed before in a ritual.

• It was placed in a Catholic church, and later in St. Peter’s Basilica.

• The pope himself referred to it as “Pachamama.”

Imagine telling Aaron, while he’s shaping the golden calf, “Relax, it’s not a god, it’s an artistic rendering of agricultural bounty.”

Idolatry is not about the historical provenance of a statue. It’s about how it’s used in a ritual context. If you prostrate before it while chanting or praying, you’ve got a problem.

2. “The tribe was Catholic. And they never worshipped Pachamama anyway.”

So because the participants were technically baptized, it’s impossible that anything pagan happened?

Have we met Catholics?

This is the most naïve point of all. Catholics can commit idolatry. Priests can commit idolatry. Bishops can commit idolatry. Israel was still God’s chosen people when they bowed before a golden calf.

And as for whether that specific tribe ever worshipped Pachamama, that’s irrelevant. Pachamama is a known Andean fertility goddess. It doesn’t matter if the tribe was Amazonian, Bolivian, or Italian. The Church has always forbidden the use of pagan religious symbols in liturgical or devotional acts. Period.

Even if no one “meant it that way,” you still don’t process a fertility idol into a synod hall and kneel before it in a church. You don’t get to call that “accompaniment.” You call it what Scripture does: abomination.

3. “It was just a display of local culture, like baskets and canoes.”

Right. Because your parish missions display has:

• Naked fertility idols,

• Ritual circles,

• Prostration,

• The pope blessing the whole thing,

• And a Vatican apology when the idols are thrown in the river.

It wasn’t a museum exhibit. It was a ritualized, symbolic ceremony in a sacred Catholic space, during the opening events of a Vatican synod. The same Vatican that would later describe the idols as “symbols of life” and include them in processions.

This was liturgized syncretism.

4. “They weren’t bowing to the statue. They were bowing to Catholic prayers.”

There is no such thing as “ritualized bowing in front of a pagan image” that is saved by muttering a few Catholic words on the side.

Even if a priest prayed a Hail Mary while doing yoga on the altar, it would still be scandalous. Intent does not erase form. Public ritual is judged by what it communicates, and the appearance of idolatry is condemned by the Church, especially in sacred spaces.

Catholicism is not a religion of delusion. You don’t get to say, “I wasn’t bowing to the statue, I was bowing near it while thinking about Jesus.”

Also, again: Francis himself called it Pachamama. He confirmed it. He apologized for its removal. The Vatican press office said it represented “life through a woman.”

5. “You all just misunderstood it, like the ‘fine people hoax.’”

Comparing a publicly documented, widely televised pagan ritual in the Vatican Gardens to a media distortion of a political soundbite is next-level cope.

There was no misquote. No selective editing. The ritual happened. The videos are still online. The pope’s words are archived. The Vatican’s statements are published.

You didn’t “misunderstand” it. You watched it. And if you felt sick to your stomach, you weren’t wrong. You were Catholic.

6. The Real Dogma: Obey, Forget, Move On

What “Pope Respecter” and his ilk are defending is not Catholicism. It’s legal positivism.

If Francis does it, it’s not wrong. And if it looks wrong, you didn’t see it. And if you insist that you did, you’re disobedient, uncharitable, and probably a rad trad LARPing schismatic.

This is the Church of Gaslight, presided over by a smiling Leo and defended by digital missionaries whose catechism begins and ends with: “Shut up and obey.”

Conclusion: Yes, You Saw It

You saw Pachamama.

You saw the pope bless it.

You saw the ritual.

You saw the prostration.

You saw it in the church.

You saw the idols thrown in the river.

You saw the apology.

You read Querida Amazonia.

You’re not crazy.

They’re just counting on your short memory and long fatigue.

Don’t give them the satisfaction.