When Pachamama idols were brought into the Vatican in 2019, cardinals and bishops did not stay silent. Bishop Athanasius Schneider condemned it in virtue of his episcopal ordination. Cardinal Gerhard Müller called it a “grave sin” and “a crime against divine law.” Cardinal Raymond Burke declared that “diabolical forces entered with this idol.” Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò named it “apostasy.” Cardinal Walter Brandmüller praised the men who threw the idols into the Tiber as “prophets of today.”

Now a photograph has surfaced showing Pope Leo XIV, then a young Augustinian priest, kneeling in a Pachamama ritual in 1995. The same idolatry they condemned under Francis, Leo participated in decades before.

The cardinals have not spoken. The double standard is not lost. A Church that barred traditional Catholics from kneeling for Communion watched a future Pope kneel to Pachamama. The words of condemnation still stand. The question is whether they apply to the man now sitting on the Throne of Peter.

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March 19, 2026