Photo of the Week

Francis with an idolatrous staff

In the solemn closing Mass of the Amazonia Synod, we saw Pope Francis with an idolatrous staff representing four Indian divinities. The photos below reproduce the sequence of the ceremony where he appears with this pagan symbol.

First row: the entrance procession; second row: during Mass at the Altar of the Confession; third row: reading the prayers before the final blessing; fourth to sixth rows: in front of the Statue of Our Lady; seventh row: blessing the sick; eighth row: the final procession leaving the Altar.

The Pope carried a wood staff sculpted with four faces.

It is not rare for South American aborigines to represent their deities with two faces, for example in the last row at left, we see a bi-faced sculpture of Pachacamac (the creator of the world).

What seems to be the significance of the papal staff?

According to a complicated local legend, Pachacamac won the heart of Pachamama (Mother Earth); from their union were born two twins, one male and one female; both called Wilka. Later the twins became the Sun and the Moon. So, the four divinities in the papal staff would be Heaven, Earth, Sun and Moon.

Some friends from Ecuador and Brazil affirm that the faces on the papal staff represented these four pagan deities. If this is true, we have Pachamama present in the final Mass of the Amazonia Synod, as Pope Francis had promised, when he delivered the final speech of that assembly against those who had thrown the statues of Pachamama into the Tiber River.

In the last row at right, you can see different Latin American Indian representations of Pachamama, Mother Earth or goddess of fertility.

Photos from Vatican footage of the Synod's final Mass

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Posted November 17, 2019

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