“I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me.” Exodus 20:2-3
On May 11, we published a groundbreaking report profiling the main participating organizations of the Vatican’s fifth World Meeting of Popular Movements (WMPM), held in October 2025 in Rome. The fully documented 144-page report proved these groups to be Marxist in belief, some having ties to guerrilla violence. In addition to this, many of the participants are also vocally pro-abortion and promote homosexual and transgender ideologies.
In the report we briefly mentioned a disturbing gift given by one of the leading organizations, Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra (MST), to Pope Leo XIV (pictured left), namely a tapestry depicting a pagan deity named Ossanha. We also noted that the head of CENARAB (pictured right), which also participated in the meeting, is a 35 year practitioner of a demonic cult called Candomble.
This prompted a follow up investigation, which led to the discovery that four of the twelve organizations we profiled in the original report are either explicitly pagan in belief or perform pagan rituals as part of their organizational activities.
As the stated goal of the WMPM is to build bridges with these popular movements, “accompany” them, and incorporate these organizations “at the periphery” into the life of the Church, this cannot be dismissed as an ecumenical case of working alongside peoples of a false religion for a common cause. We were originally horrified to see that the Vatican has chosen to cooperate with hardened Marxist organizations to effect social change. But now, we can see that the situation as far worse as the poor and downtrodden Catholic faithful being introduced to the wolves of communism are also being delivered into the arms of demons due to a revolutionary resurgence of neo-paganism.
Again, we are NOT stating that Pope Leo XIV was aware of the nature of these organizations or aware that the gift he received pictured above is a pagan deity. We are also NOT accusing Pope Leo of any wrongdoing either directly or by implication.
This report will contain descriptions and images of pagan rituals and practices that some may find disturbing. We do not want to sensationalize this material, and our goal is not to create scandal, but to document facts as reported by primary sources so those in authority can safeguard the faithful.
Summary of findings
The following four organizations profiled in our original report on the World Meeting of Popular Movements were found to be directly engaged in pagan practices at an organizational level:
- Comité de Unidad Campesina (CUC)
- CENARAB
- Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra (MST)
- La Via Campesina
This report will profile the practices of each of these organizations, as well as provide some contextual information to highlight the theological opposition to the Catholic faith. This will serve to demonstrate the incompatible nature of these practices among all the Catholic faithful, and illustrate the grave danger posed to vulnerable Catholics should practitioners of these cults be brought to poor parishes in South America.
This is important due to the stated goal of the World Meeting of Popular Movements to build bridges to bring these organizations into the life of local Catholic churches.
Cardinal Michael Czerny, S.J., in his speech given on Oct 21, 2025 to the WMPM stated one of the meeting’s objectives is:
To favour dialogue between grassroots movements (whether or not of Christian origin) and the Church at all its levels (in your country, on your continent, and world-wide), and so to stimulate the local Churches to get involved with grassroots movements.” [emphasis added]
He continued later in the same speech:
Francis dreamt of the day when popular movements – farmers and fishers, migrants, precarious workers, social activists – are not simply welcome by Church people, but recognised as a living, thinking, acting part of Church life. And so, you are here, delegations of popular movements accompanied by representatives of the Church in their areas. This is the promising way for popular movements to walk with the Church, and for the Church to accompany the Popular Movements. This is the teaching of the II Vatican Council about the Church, and this is the ‘path of synodality which God expects of the Church of the third millennium.’ [emphasis added]
WMPM Coordinator Don Matteo Ferrari echoed these statements in an article in Noticias Obreras:
Ferrari recalled the birth of this platform under the impetus of Pope Francis since 2014, with the specific mission of “being at the service of your relationships, helping you relate to each other and to your churches”. That, he stressed, was the task entrusted by the Gospel and by Bergoglio to this space, which today continues to accompany the life of organized communities around the world.
[Ferrari] recalled that, after the time of Juan Grabois, the EMMP assumed the commitment to maintain its mission to build bridges between popular movements and local Churches and insisted that the role of this platform is to continue accompanying the initiated processes. “Also after the meeting we will continue working. It is important that they know that they can always count on us for their mission, their fight and everything they do” he stressed.
The Italian priest highlighted the importance of sustaining the ties generated during these days: “We want to ensure that no popular movement feels alone, because the relationships between us are the most important gift we have, the gift we give each other: friendship”. [Translated from Spanish, emphasis added]
We have already demonstrated the absolute incompatibility of these organizations with Catholicism in our previous report due to their radical and in some cases violent Marxist beliefs as well as their rabid support for evils such as transgenderism and abortion.
With that in mind, let us now examine these four organizations’ theological beliefs in detail, starting with Comité de Unidad Campesina.
Comité de Unidad Campesina (CUC)
As profiled in our previous report, CUC was founded in 1978 primarily by Catholic practitioners of Liberation Theology, Catholic Action and base communities as a leftist insurgent movement in Guatemala with strong leanings toward Marxist class-based analysis. CUC was nearly destroyed in the 1980’s during a period of war in Guatemala, barely surviving as an underground movement. It re-emerged as a force in the 1990’s, evolving to incorporate a broader Mayan cultural identity.
The catalyst for this transformation was the Continental Campaign of 500 Years of Indigenous, Black, and Popular Resistance, organized in response to the 1992 Columbus Quincentennial. CUC and allied popular indigenous organizations realized that a purely material class struggle was insufficient for unifying the masses. Consequently, these groups latched onto Mayan Cosmology as a strategic means for gathering local support. As Rachel Sider states in her analysis:
Mayan traditions could provide highly appropriate frameworks for reconstituting social structures destroyed by the war. Mayan organisations sought to advance political reconciliation and reconstruction through rebuilding indigenous identities, drawing on cultural elements such as language, and developing innovative interpretations of ancient myths and customs.
Today, this Mayan framework completely shapes CUC’s identity, maintaining what they call the Mayan Cosmovision – a holistic worldview that the universe is a living, conscious entity and that just as all life comes from the universe, all life is directed toward the universe, and thus all living things must maintain a harmonious and interdependent relationship. The pillars of the Mayan Cosmovision have been fully adopted as the movement’s symbolic armament, serving as the primary mechanism for legitimizing their political, social, and economic struggles.
To those ignorant of its teachings, Mayan religious practices appear harmless and are trivialized as some smoking bowls and various vegetables and items strewn about in a circle. However, Mayan Cosmovision is immanent, pantheistic and animistic at its core, and because of this, is completely contrary to the Catholic faith and the life of salvation.
To the Mayan practitioner, the physical earth is a living, divine entity. And to CUC this becomes a justification for socialism as private property is a violation of community and the divine Mother Earth. In the Mayan Cosmovision, each location and landmark is a deity, a spirit or guardian, called a Nawale, and there is a pantheon of such guardians. Ancestors remain actively present in the physical world and must be fed and consulted. CUC often calls upon the Nawales for and Ancestors in petition for the well being and success of militants engaged in the struggle. CUC utilizes Mayan shamans, or “Ajq’ij” to lead these ceremonies.
The most common expression is the El Fuego Sagrado, or sacred fire ceremony. An altar is directly built upon the ground, the four directions are symbolized by colored candles and offerings are placed to invoke the nawales [spirits and guardians] and ancestors.
For example, in 2011 CUC admitted to invoking pagan deities as it opened its tenth national assembly with such an offering:
This extraordinary event began with an invocation to the Mayan deities so that the event would conclude with satisfactory results in favor of the peasant population and the protection of Mother Earth. The ceremony was held in one of the hills surrounding the village of Tzan Siwan, Cunen, Quiché, highlighting the active participation of young people of Mayan descent and leaders of rural communities, with the conviction of continuing to promote social actions to improve the living situation of indigenous families, who are mostly peasant families.
The cultural events that highlighted the event were presented by young people, which transmitted a message of cultural identity, struggle and resistance for the defense of Mother Earth and the Territory. [emphasis added]
Also, in 2013, CUC posted images of a sacred fire ceremony held to celebrate the New Year and to call upon the Nawales to guide their steps.
In a second image from the same event, CUC boasted about the presence of Monsignor Alvaro Ramazzini (elevated to Cardinal in 2019):
CUC continues to incorporate these Mayan religious ceremonies in its actions as can be seen in this image from a recent May 29, 2026, action posted on CUC’s Facebook feed. Note that the men are holding long wooden staffs called varas de mando, indicating they are Ajq’ij [shamans] and possess the authority to commune with the Nawales [spirits and guardians].
CUC’s official song book contains many references to the Mayan Cosmovision, alongside the revolutionary hymns we reported on previously. There are multiple references to the Nawales, Xibalba (the Mayan underworld) as well as the line “with the knowledge of the Maya we will win,” in reference to the Mayan cosmology.
CENARAB
Moving from Guatamala to Brazil, we will now examine the National Center for Africanness and Resistance Afro-Brazilian – CENARAB, an organization founded expressly for the defense of pagan practices. CENARAB was founded in 1991 by Makota Celinha (AKA Celia Goncalves) with the focus of combating intolerance against the Afro-Brazilian pagan religions in Brazil. It also was created to promote LGBT activism and other evils. Makota is the woman shaking hands with Pope Leo in the photo at the beginning of this article.
One of the main Afro-Brazilian religions represented by CENARAB is Candomble.
Candomble is frequently sanitized and celebrated merely as a rich cultural heritage or a vibrant expression of Afro-Brazilian historical resistance. However, a deeper theological examination reveals a highly structured, animistic, and inherently polytheistic religious system. Like the Mayan Cosmovision practiced by CUC, Candomble operates on a theology that stands in absolute contradiction to the First Commandment and the revealed truths of the Catholic faith.
Candomble is fundamentally centered on the veneration and service of the Orixás, which are a vast pantheon of deities and ancestral spirits that govern the forces of nature and human destiny. While practitioners may acknowledge a distant supreme creator (Olorun), daily religious life and worship are entirely directed toward these lesser deities. Each Orixá demands specific veneration, colors, foods, and animal sacrifices.
Historically, practitioners of Candomble masked their Orixás behind the identities of Catholic saints. For example, the deity of war and iron, Ogum, is often syncretized with Saint George, while the water goddess Iemanjá is deceitfully cloaked in the imagery of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This syncretism makes Candomblé uniquely dangerous to poorly catechized Catholics, who may be led to believe they are participating in a legitimate devotion to the Saints.
Candomble’s liturgical rites are conducted in temples known as terreiros. The goal of the worship ceremonies is to accumulate axé, which a spiritual energy or life force.
The methods of accumulating this spiritual energy involves two highly disturbing and evil practices. First is the ritualistic blood offerings of goats, chickens and other animals to “feed” the Orixas. Second, and even more disturbing, is the ritualized practice of spirit possession. During extensive ceremonies involving rhythmic drumming (on blood-consecrated drums called atabaque) and chanting, practitioners willingly open themselves to be “mounted” or possessed by the Orixás. The participants enter deep trance states wherein the spirits allegedly overtake their bodies to dance, issue prophecies, and advise the community.
Candomble also relies heavily on the practice of divination, or foretelling the future and will of the Orixas through the casting of shells.
According to this paper written by Anne Ziegler, she recounts her invitation by Makota Celinha to witness a Candomble possession ceremony called Festa de Exú:
… After a while, the beat of the drums shifted, the rhythm grew more demanding, and the participants began to clap and sing to call the spirits.
And then they came – the Pomba Giras and the Exús, feminine and masculine spiritual entities of the Afro-Brazilian tradition, guardians of the crossroads and messengers between the human world, the ancestors, and the Orixás – the divine forces of nature. After the entities descended 2 into the bodies of some of the mediums present, they spiraled through the room, cigars between their fingers and bottles of cachaça – Brazil’s strong sugarcane liquor – in their hands, laughing and dancing, while the drums accompanied their movements like a heartbeat, celebrating their evening, their Festa de Exú. Here, in this terreiro, gender was fluid: some men incorporated Pomba Giras, while women danced as Exús. The Mãe de Santo, the spiritual leader of the terreiro and herself a trans woman, smiled. For many here, this place is a sanctuary – a space that affirms and celebrates Black, queer, and trans lives.
Videos on Youtube exist of these Festa de Exu ceremonies such as this one. Be warned, though, as such videos are highly disturbing and should not be watched except by those with a mandate to do so. These images will suffice for illustrative purposes:
Suffice it to say, CENARAB’s social media is full of references to these Afro-Brazilian deities and practices.
For instance, this 20 October 2020 post shows an image of the deity “Ogum,” calling upon his “blessing.”
This Facebook post by CENARAB was maliciously posted on July 26, feast of St. Anne, mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, depicting the Orixa “Nana”, grandmother of the gods:
Again, CENARAB is an organization participating in the World Meeting of Popular Movements. And this, despite the fact that it’s primary purpose is the promotion of Afro-Brazilian pagan religions such as Candomble, and it was founded and led by a Makota, who is essentially an Afro-Brazilian priestess whose primary duties include guiding those under spiritual possession during certain rituals. CENARAB – by its very nature – poses a clear and present danger to all Catholics, and yet, it was included among those organizations at the World Meeting of Popular Movements accompanied by local, mandated Church representatives. And worse, it is included among those organizations with whom the Vatican called for synodal inclusion.
Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra (MST)
As we profiled in our previous report on the WMPM, MST is a heavily Marxist member of the WMPM’s organizing committee. It is MST that presented Pope Leo with the image of the Candomble Orixa Ossanha as posted above. This is because MST is steeped in the promotion of Afro-Brazilian pagan religions.
MST’s main method of operations is occupying [read, stealing] “unproductive” farmlands with large family groups, sometimes numbering in the thousands and establishing farming communities. Once the land is occupied, MST creates immense pressure on the state to transfer ownership of these farmlands to the squatting families. Analyzing this tactic is not the purpose of this particular report. However, underneath the guise of fighting for the landless poor, our investigation reveals that the MST actively facilitates the establishment and promotion of pagan terreiros (Afro-Brazilian religious temples) directly within their occupied encampments and legal settlements.
According to the MST’s own official communications, the movement has formally allied with CENARAB to integrate practitioners of Umbanda [another syncretic Afro-Brazilian religion rooted in reincarnation, moral fluidity, and communication with spirits] and Candomblé into its agrarian struggle. During a recent major national encounter of Afro-Brazilian religions coordinated by Makota Celinha (the founder of CENARAB), the MST proudly reported the active participation of its own militants to represent the movement’s religious integration.
This participation has been institutionalized in a dedicated, operational front within the movement known as the Povos de Terreiro do MST (Peoples of the Terreiro of the MST). The Povos de Terreiro operates as a specialized front with the objective to fuse the material struggle for land reform with the liturgical practices of Candomblé and Umbanda.
For example, in April of 2025, MST’s Povos de Terreiro along with Makota Celinha of CENARAB organized an Ogum Feijoada to celebrate Ogum, the pagan deity of war, iron, and the forging of tools. The resulting event was a functioning pagan liturgy. MST officially commenced the gathering with a ritualistic smoking intended for spiritual cleansing and a Xirê, the traditional Candomblé ceremony consisting of specialized chants and dances designed to invoke the Orixás into the physical space. Only after these pagan rites were concluded did the movement distribute the ritually dedicated food to the hundreds of attendees.
MST posted extensively about this event on its Facebook page, explicitly mentioning the religious connotations of the event:
MST advertising for the event on Facebook prominently placed Ogum in the center of focus:
Video from the event shows the Ogum worship in action:
MST also posted about another Ogum bean ceremony, this time with prominent dissident Liberation Theologian Leonard Boff participating:
MST also posted about its gift of the orixa Ossanha to Pope Leo XIV, giving confirmation that MST knew exactly what the gift depicted:
Ayala delivered to Pope XIV an image of Ossanaha, made with the beads of the candomblé, by Wilton Gurgel, an officer of CENARAB. Ossanha is an orixa of candomblé and umbanda, revered as the master of leaves and herbs. He is the keeper of the secrets of medicinal and liturgical plants, holding the power of healing and plant magic. In candomblé and umbanda no religious ceremony can be performed without its presence and the use of its sacred leaves.
We were heartened when Pope Leo XIV warned African Catholics about the dangers of syncretism in April of this year, and we hope that he has appropriately disposed of the image gifted to him.
However, this does not explain or excuse the presence of MST at the WMPM nor its major role as an organizer for the event. The organization’s thoroughly Marxist bent along with its worship and promotion of false demonic entities such as Ogun render it an incredibly dangerous partner to build bridges with. To bring the MST into the life of the local Church is to invite the Povos de Terreiro do MST into the sanctuary. It is an unthinkable betrayal of the First Commandment, abandoning the impoverished Catholic worker to the wolves of communism and the spiritual bondage of idolatry under the false banner of social justice.
La Via Campesina
Founded in 1993, LVC is a massive transnational coalition that brings together an estimated 200 million peasants, small-scale farmers, landless workers, and indigenous groups across 81 countries. To the secular observer, LVC appears merely as an leftist agrarian advocacy group fighting the transnational agribusiness while demanding fair prices for crops. However, beneath its political exterior lies a profound theological hazard. LVC serves as a global vehicle for standardizing and disseminating pagan earth-worship to rural populations worldwide.
A strong example of the danger comes into focus in this interview with one of the co-founders of La Via Campesina, Paul Nicholson. When asked about the role of spirituality in the food sovereignty movement he states:
In La Via Campesina, obviously, you have coordinators and members from all religions. We have a huge diversity and it’s never been a problem because what unites us is love for the land. In most languages you have an expression to designate Mother Earth, or Pacha Mama.
So, what is going on here is the boiling down of “all religions” into a common stew of vague Pachamama worship, though this is just the beginning. Nicholson continues:
I would say spirituality is one of the main principles of the movement. In every La Via Campesina gathering, we begin the day with what we call a mistica. It’s a spiritual, 10 minute “performance” relating to the commonalities of all the persons who are present. The mistica very often begins with music or poetry, and it focuses on a specific issue that we want to highlight. It might be seeds. The value of the seeds, the struggle against the TNCs who want to take the seeds from us. And then we end up handing out seeds. That is a typical performance. Or it’s about our relationship with land, which is our land, which has been taken over from us. Another theme that is very common is violence against women, the relationship between women and men, the issue of domestic or gender-based violence. Those are very common themes. The mistica doesn’t require any translation but communicates very strong emotions. Often the mistica makes you cry or it makes you understand very clearly. You need an open mind, and you need to understand our relationship with the land. It’s a Cosmovision, not an anthropocentric understanding. The planet is the center. In my opinion, the mistica is one of the principles uniting La Via Campesina. We are not an intellectual movement. We are an emotional movement. The mistica helps us work on our commonalities, not on our differences.
Let’s keep this in mind, that the “mistica” is one of the uniting principles of La Via Campesina, and a MANDATED practice. Nicholson later explains that the mistica originated in Liberation Theology but has gained its own characteristics. Nicholson adds:
I have learned especially from the Indigenous Peoples. They have a different understanding of the relationship with the cosmos. I think we need this Cosmovision. This has been a debate internally too. I remember in one of the summits on climate change, we were working on our political declaration late at night, and one of indigenous persons in our delegation said: “we need to defend a Cosmovision, our relationship with the planet”. And the European delegates did not understand this at all. For them, the climate emergency was the issue, and spirituality was a waste of time, it was not relevant to the discussion. It was an intense debate. It forced us to think about our role and our relationship with the land. It helped us see that we need to go beyond the technology or technocratic fixes, we need more than just a policy change. We have to develop our alternatives to neoliberalism and we need new ethics. La Via Campesina in that sense is transformative. [emphasis added]
Nicholson, as cofounder of LVC, is confirmed to have attended the 2014 WMPM, and can be seen in this video from the most recent 5th WMPM.
He also participated in the 3rd WMPM in 2016, as can be seen in this video, here:
The misticas coordinated by LVC often incorporate pagan elements from whatever culture is present and sometimes introduce new ones to foreign lands. For instance, here is a LVC mistica incorporating elements of a Korean ritual called “Gosa” which prays to the spirits of the earth, sky and universe.
“The mistica often includes some protocols that are not unlike organized Catholic religion. For example, distributing seeds or giving seeds to each person in the room. That’s not unlike communion.”
La Via Campesina is an example of the emerging global neo-paganism that has been poking its nose under the tent recently. We’ve seen it surfacing here and there, even in Vatican events like the Synod of the Amazon, which led to much confusion and scandal. However, ex nihilo nihil fit, nothing comes from nothing. This movement has been percolating and is part of something even larger still, which is far beyond the scope of this report.
For now, let’s take a brief look at the Instituto Humanitas Unisinos (IHU) website to get a sense of the environment in South America. IHU is a prominent Jesuit University in Brazil. One article on its website stands out, titled “Voices from Emmaus: Challenges and Perspectives of Pluralist Liberation Theologies” by Marcelo Barros. The article indicates that Barros is:
“Benedictine monk, theologian and writer. He advises social movements and grassroots church communities and is a member of the Theological Commission of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians.”
This article speaks of not just Liberation Theology, but a Pluralistic set of Liberation Theologies, where, according to Barros:
“it is the task of a pluralist theology of liberation to deepen what each expression of faith and spirituality can bring to the liberating walk and, at the same time, in which the liberating walk can contribute to the spirituality and theological self-understanding of each religious belonging.”
In other words, a religious pluralism of varying beliefs based on liberation.
Barros specifically praises the Afro-Brazilian religions like Candomble for their natural syncretism. He states:
“Of all the regions of Brazil, people linked to Afro-descendant spiritual traditions and various types of indigenous shamanism have always known how to coexist with the religions of the dominant society, especially Catholicism. In the vast majority of cases, people do not feel like they are of two religions. They are Catholic as Candomblecists or Evangelical as Umbandaists. “
Barros waxes on about greatness of syncretism before finally stating:
The first subject for those who wish to deepen Pluralistic Liberation Theologies will be the loving look and the desire to learn from the black spiritualities and the experiences of shamanism, whether traditional, or urban neo-shamanism.
In some contexts, even without this formulation, the various advocacy groups of religious freedom seem to constitute as a joint effort of people from various spiritual traditions to save the planet and point out ways of salvation for humanity. Deep down, it is as if the current reality is too complex to be answered or met by a single religious tradition. The challenges of rediscovering what the Andean peoples call “well-live” and “well to live with” of humanity have become so difficult that we have to unite the spiritual wisdom of diverse traditions and, the more numerous, the better. [emphasis added]
Barros is not alone in his near fawning desire for a pluralistic syncretistic liberationist mess of a theology. Bishop Erwin Krautler, a major participant in the Synod of the Amazon was widely reported as having boasted that he had never baptized an indigenous person and never would. Also, at the press briefing on the Amazon Synod, Gilberto Alfredo Vizcarra Mori, S.J., of Peru said of the Amazonian natives, “I did not go there to teach them.”
This same thread of thought is also behind the push for inculturated liturgies in Brazil that incorporate the Atabaque specifically to drum Candomble like rhythms throughout the Mass. Recall that the Atabaque is the highly ritualized set of drums of Candomble, used to bring about the possession of individuals by the demonic orixas. The Brazilian bishops organization CNBB does have some guidelines for these Afro-Brazilian liturgies through its “Pastoral Afro-Brazil,” but even so, confusion due to the highly syncretized nature of Candomble reigns as this short news report shockingly illustrates:
It is into this confused environment that the Vatican is sending these Marxist neo-pagan organizations with an express mandate to bridge-build as living, thinking and active parts of Church life. St Thomas Aquinas, when discussing conversing with unbelievers, he allows for the learned and strong in faith to do so as a means of evangelization, but explains that the simple faithful should be forbidden to do so due to the grave danger of perversion:
For some are firm in the faith; and so it is to be hoped that their communicating with unbelievers will lead to the conversion of the latter rather than to the aversion of the faithful from the faith. These are not to be forbidden to communicate with unbelievers who have not received the faith, such as pagans or Jews, especially if there be some urgent necessity for so doing. But in the case of simple people and those who are weak in the faith, whose perversion is to be feared as a probable result, they should be forbidden to communicate with unbelievers, and especially to be on very familiar terms with them, or to communicate with them without necessity.
The problem is that in this present climate of laissez faire synodality, the learned are not engaged in evangelization but instead obsessed with a theologically perverse form of pluralistic dialogue. Not only that, but these same learned shepherds, instead of celebrating the return of the prodigal son would rather force the older son to join the younger to wallow in the pigsty, convincing him that life is better this way.
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