Nearly two years after the removal of the controversial “Apache Christ” image from St. Joseph Mission on the Mescalero Apache Reservation sparked national attention, testimony from Father Joseph Chudy Aguinam and a former diocesan official provides a detailed account of what occurred behind the scenes, raising questions about the integrity of diocesan leadership, liturgical syncretism, and the fate of the missionary priest who carried out the bishop’s own instructions.
The controversy centers on an oil painting by Franciscan artist Brother Robert Lentz, OFM, that depicts Christ as an Apache medicine man. Lentz, whose iconography frequently depicts homosexuals as saints and even canonized saints as homosexuals, explained at the time the process by which he created the image: after collecting water from the Apache’s “sacred mountain” to mix the paint, he then added his own body oil to the mixture.
According to Lentz, the image includes references to Apache female fertility rites as well as pagan offerings their medicine men offer to their deities.
Lentz described the image as follows:
Christ is depicted as a Mescalero holy man, greeting the sun of the fourth morning of the woman’s puberty rites. These are the most sacred of the Apache ceremonies, celebrating the sanctity of the gift of producing new life. A sun symbol is painted on his left palm, and he holds a deer hoof rattle in his right hand. A basket at his feet holds an eagle feather, a grass brush, and bags of tobacco and cattail pollen — items used in the rites. He stands atop 12,000-foot Sierra Blanca, the sacred mountain of the Mescaleros. Behind him flies an eagle, the guide who first led the Apaches to their “promised land!”
The painting had hung for decades in the sanctuary of St. Joseph Mission and had become deeply significant to many members of the Mescalero Apache community. According to witnesses, many Apache Catholics came to wrongly understand Christ through the image as an Apache medicine man. The image itself was reportedly blessed both by a Catholic priest and an Apache medicine man when it was first installed.
According to Lentz, Apache medicine men and women “blessed” the image during the Mass when it was first installed at the mission:
In 1990, when I drove down to Mescalero to discuss painting an image of Christ as an Apache with Larry Goselin, there were a few Apache artifacts in the sanctuary, like baskets, and the chandeliers in the nave were patterned after the headdresses of the Apache Mountain Spirit dancers. The first reaction of the medicine men and women that Larry gathered to discuss the project with me was negative–that the two cultures should not be mixed. By the end of our conversations, all were in favor of the project and had given me helpful suggestions for the image. When the image was blessed, Larry invited the medicine men and women to bless it after the Gospel at Mass…
Fr. Joseph Chudy Aguinam, a Nigerian missionary priest, arrived at St. Joseph Mission shortly before Advent 2023 after being appointed pastoral administrator by Bishop Peter Baldacchino. According to testimony Fr. Chudy gave to the Lepanto Institute, the bishop entrusted him with two principal objectives: to gradually hand leadership of the mission to Apache Catholics and to re-evangelize the parish by removing elements of religious syncretism while restoring the Eucharist to the center of parish life during the National Eucharistic Revival.
Fr. Chudy emphasized to Lepanto the importance of purifying the religious practices and beliefs of the Apache Catholics of all elements incompatible with the Catholic Faith, and strengthening their devotion to Christ in the holy Eucharist as the source and summit of the Christian life. This was the bishop’s main evangelization goal in sending him to St. Joseph Mission.
Commenting on the syncretistic nature of the image, Fr. Chudy told Lepanto that the title “Apache Christ” itself is “blasphemous” because it designates Christ as a pagan priest offering sacrifices to tribal deities rather than as the eternal High Priest who offered Himself to the Father on the Cross for man’s salvation.
But, Fr. Chudy insists, it is a fundamental dogma of Christianity that Christ does not offer anything other than Himself and His own Blood to the Father for the redemption of the world, as the Letter to the Hebrews clearly teaches,
But when Christ appeared as high priest of the good things to come, he entered once for all through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made by hands (that is, not of the is creation), nor again by virtue of blood of goats and calves, but by virtue of his own blood, into the Holies, having obtained eternal redemption (Heb 9:11-12).
For several months in 2024 Fr. Chudy preached on what he believed were theological problems with the “Apache Christ” image and explained why Christ should not be represented as an Apache medicine man. While some parishioners accepted his teaching, others viewed his efforts as an attack on Apache culture.
According to both Fr. Chudy and a former diocesan official, Bishop Baldacchino eventually authorized removal of the painting. During a June 2024 meeting discussing the logistics of the operation, the bishop reportedly entered the chancery office and remarked, “Okay, very good. Take it slow.”
The image was subsequently removed from the sanctuary on June 26, 2024, at approximately 2:30pm, while the church doors remained locked. Prayers of deliverance were offered by Fr. Chudy to decommission the image before it was transported to the diocesan pastoral center. Fr. Chudy remained in communication with the bishop throughout the process and affirmed to those involved that the bishop was pleased with the removal. A crucifix was then placed in the church to refocus attention on Christ in the Eucharist.
The decision quickly ignited a media firestorm. Tribal leaders accused the Diocese of Las Cruces of stealing the painting, while news outlets demanded an explanation. According to diocesan witnesses, Bishop Baldacchino initially approved a public statement explaining that the image had been removed under his authority to regulate the liturgical space of the church because of concerns about syncretism. Fr. Chudy also reviewed and approved the draft, which was read to him out loud by the bishop in a conference call with five other witnesses present. It was intended for publication by The Pillar.
The statement, however, was never released.
According to those present at subsequent meetings, Vicar General Father Kevin Waymel urged the bishop to abandon the original plan, return the painting to the Mescalero Apache Mission, and refrain from publicly defending the removal. The diocese’s chief operating officer returned the image, and it was ultimately placed back inside the sanctuary.
The image was handed over to the tribal offices of the Mescalero with the bishop’s instructions that it was not to go back into the church. Diocesan staff had forewarned the bishop his instructions would not be followed, and the very next day the Mescalero placed the image again in the church sanctuary.
As criticism mounted, Fr. Chudy was removed from the mission. Diocesan officials stated to him that his life was in danger, and according to his testimony, he was later given just 48 hours to leave the Diocese of Las Cruces. Reportedly, diocesan officials were instructed not to renew his religious visa, forcing his return to his home diocese in Nigeria.
Fr. Chudy maintains he acted solely in obedience to Bishop Baldacchino, following his express instructions in removing the image, and that he became the scapegoat after diocesan leadership reversed course in the face of public pressure. A former diocesan official with whom the Lepanto Institute has spoken about the events likewise contend that the controversy was mishandled and that the bishop’s original decision to remove the image was abandoned without explanation.
Questions surrounding syncretism in the Las Cruces Diocese extend beyond the painting itself. According to testimony presented by a former diocesan official, following the return of the Apache Christ image to the mission, Bishop Baldacchino attended traditional Apache coming-of-age ceremonies held in the mountains on the reservation, where girls participate in several days of ritual dancing and receive blessings from an Apache medicine man.
According to an Apache website describing in detail the pagan ceremonies, Apache girls are anointed with sacred clay and believed to “literally embody” one of their mythical deities:
Central to the ceremony is the anointing of the na’ii’ees [the Apache girl] with sacred clay, often ochre, mixed with specific herbs. This act is deeply symbolic, invoking the healing and transformative powers of the earth. As the medicine woman applies the clay, she chants ancient prayers, asking for health, longevity, and fertility for the girl. This anointing physically connects the na’ii’ees to White Painted Woman, the mythical figure who represents all Apache women and embodies the cycles of life, death, and rebirth. Through this ritual, the girl is believed to literally embody White Painted Woman, taking on her strength and benevolent spirit for the duration of the ceremony.
Reportedly, at one such Apache ceremony the bishop himself received a blessing from an Apache medicine man involving ceremonial pollen, and an image depicting the event was later created.
According to testimony given to Lepanto, the first time that Bishop Baldacchino had attended the ceremony was in 2022. A diocesan official was made aware of it by Fr. Dave Mercer, then-parochial administrator of the mission. The bishop himself also revealed to this same official that he had participated in the ceremony, showing an image he had received from Fr. Mercer depicting the two being blessed by the medicine man.
In an open letter to Bishop Badachinno regarding the Apache Christ controversy, Fr. Larry Gosselin, OFM, who preceded Fr. Chudy at St. Joseph Mission, had called for not only the return of the image but for the bishop to participate in a pagan rite of blessing by Apache medicine men, as had previous bishops of Las Cruces.
In his letter, Gosselin wrote:
The return of the Apache Christ to its proper place in the sanctuary of the St. Joseph Apache Mission is unequivocal. Besides that necessary step, this placement needs to take place in a formal blessing, both from the traditional Apache leaders of the Mescalero community, and I believe from you, equally as Pastoral Shepherd of the Church and the People of God. A formal blessing of honoring in complete honesty and profound humility to the People of Mescalero needs to take place for reconciliation and restitution of the harm that this has caused, both in the displacement of an image, and even more so, in the spiritual displacement for a people of faith and trust in the Church. I believe that in offering apologies to the People of Mescalero and asking for their forgiveness is only the first step in this pastoral concern, you need to bless the people, and equally, I believe, that they should bless you in their traditional way of blessing, as has been done previously to the Bishop of the Diocese of Las Cruces. I also believe that the artist Br. Robert Lenz, ofm should also be present at this blessing.
According to Catholic dogma, such religious ceremonies would constitute acts of superstition and false religion and would thus be gravely sinful.
The Diocese of Las Cruces has never released the statement reportedly prepared immediately after the painting’s removal. Meanwhile, the “Apache Christ” image, depicting Christ as a pagan medicine man holding sacrificial gifts for the deities of the Apache tribe, scandalously remains in the sanctuary of St. Joseph Catholic Mission, and the Apache natives continue to venerate the Incarnate Son of God as if He were a pagan priest.
Thank you for publishing this. Many of us who know the full story have been silenced and bullied out of the diocese throughout the years. It’s only getting worse now with the NCW taking over. God bless you.
What is so sad is that this occurred a couple of days after the USCCB published the following document at their yearly meeting in June 2024. I don’t know if the pastoral staff in the Las Cruces Diocese has even read it.
https://www.usccb.org/resources/Indigenous%20Pastoral%20Framework%20-June%202024-Final%20Text.pdf
Keeping Christ’s Sacred Promise:
A Pastoral Framework for Indigenous Ministry
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from St. John Paul II
Excerpts from 1987 from St. John Paul II
APOSTOLIC JOURNEY
TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND CANADA
MEETING WITH THE NATIVE PEOPLES OF THE AMERICAS
ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS JOHN PAUL II
Memorial Coliseum, Phoenix
Monday, 14 September 1987
[¶#1] . . . I was able to see you as the noble descendants of countless generations of inhabitants of this land, whose ways were marked by great respect for the natural resources of land and rivers, of forest and plain and desert. Here your forefathers cherished and sought to pass on to each new generation their customs and traditions, their history and way of life. Here they worshipped the Creator and thanked him for his gifts. In contact with the forces of nature they learned the value of prayer, of silence and fasting, of patience and courage in the face of pain and disappointment. …
[¶#4] 4. It is time to think of the present and of the future. Today, people are realizing more and more clearly that we all belong to the one human family, and are meant to walk and work together in mutual respect, understanding, trust and love. Within this family each people preserves and expresses its own identity and enriches others with its gifts of culture, tradition, customs, stories, song, dance, art and skills.
From the very beginning, the Creator bestowed his gifts on each people. It is clear that stereotyping. prejudice, bigotry and racism demean the human dignity which comes from the hand of the Creator and which is seen in variety and diversity. I encourage you, as native people belonging to the different tribes and nations in the East, South, West and North, to preserve and keep alive your cultures, your languages, the values and customs which have served you well in the past and which provide a solid foundation for the future. Your customs that mark the various stages of life, your love for the extended family, your respect for the dignity and worth of every human being, from the unborn to the aged, and your stewardship and care of the earth: these things benefit not only yourselves but the entire human family.
[¶#5] “Your encounter with the Gospel has not only enriched you; it has enriched the Church. We are well aware that this has not taken place without its difficulties and, occasionally, its blunders. However, and you are experiencing this today, the Gospel does not destroy what is best in you. On the contrary, it enriches, as it were from within, the spiritual qualities and gifts that are distinctive of your cultures” (Ioannis Pauli PP. II, Allocutio ad indigenas populationes Canadenses, 3, die 10 sept. 1984: Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, VII/2 [1984] 407). The American Bishops’ Statement on Native Americans rightly attests that our Catholic faith is capable of thriving ” within each culture, within each nation, within each race, while remaining the prisoner of none” (Statement of 4 May 1977). … Here too I wish to urge the local Churches to be truly “catholic” in their outreach to native peoples, and to show respect and honor for their culture and all their worthy traditions.