Vatican approves Mayan rite with ritual dance, female incensors and lay leadership of Mass parts

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Vatican approves Mayan rite with ritual dance, female incensors and lay leadership of Mass parts
The much anticipated Mayan rite of the Mass will be implemented in certain parts of Mexico, and contains a number of element drawn from pagan, indigenous culture. A draft of the rite seen previously by LifeSite highlights the pagan theology underpinning the actions.



Mayan altar on the floor of a church
(Seminario Conciliar De San Cristóbal/Facebook

Nov 15, 2024
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — The Vatican has approved the Mayan rite of the Mass which will involve ritual dancing, women taking the place of the priest in incensing the altar, and lay leadership of certain prayers in the liturgy.

The announcement came via Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel, who is bishop emeritus of the San Cristobal de Las Casas diocese in Mexico and one of the leading promoters of this new rite.

Writing in his weekly column November 13, Arizmendi joyfully revealed that the Vatican’s Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has “with the authority of the Pope, on November 8 of this year, granted the long-awaited recognitio of some liturgical adaptations for the celebration of the Holy Mass in the Tseltal, Tsotsil, Ch’ol, Tojolabal, and Zoque ethnic groups of the diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas.”

Arizmendi has previously been in communication with LifeSite’s Dr. Maike Hickson, providing her with details about the proposed draft of the rite when it was being assessed by the Vatican. Subsequently, he confirmed to this correspondent a few times about his consternation that the Dicastery was taking so long to approve the rite.

The Vatican’s approval is “the official recognition of the Church by which these adaptations are approved as valid and legitimate,” he wrote in his column.

“They are the liturgy of the Church, and not just customs and habits that are viewed with suspicion,” he said in defense of the new rite of the Novus Ordo Mass. {Emphasis original}

Arizmendi was keen to highlight the significance of the development, since it is indeed only the second such rite since the Second Vatican Council which has been approved, the other being the Zaire rite in Africa.

Echoing Pope Francis on the topic, Arizmendi opined that such rites “are a form of incarnation of faith in expressions that are very specific to these cultures. We did not invent them, but we adopted what they live and which is in accordance with the Roman rite.”

“If there are deviations in some indigenous customs, we can help them to reach their fullness in Christ and in his Church,” he said.

What is new?

Last summer, Arizmendi provided LifeSite with the draft that had been submitted to the Vatican.

The now Vatican-approved rite – as described by Arizmendi – is outlined below:

Ritual dances: “Ritual dances” were approved at the Offertory, in the prayer of the faithful or in the thanksgiving after communion. These, Arizmendi said, are “simple movements of the entire assembly, monotonous, contemplative, accompanied by traditional music, and which express the same thing as the Roman rite, but in a different cultural form.”

“The content of the Mass is not changed, but the way it is expressed,” he said.

Women to incense instead of the priest: Women will perform the “ministry of incense bearers” in Mass “instead of the priest.” After the priest blesses and imposes incense, the woman then incense the “altar, the images, the Gospel book, the ministers and the assembly.” They will apparently not use the customary thurible, but rather “an incense burner proper to their culture.”

This, Arimenzi said, is born out of the indigenous custom of having usually women incensing during prayer.

Lay leadership of Mass prayers: The practice of having a lay man or woman of “recognized moral importance” who will be the “principal,” has been approved to “lead certain parts of the community prayer.” These times would be: “either at the beginning of the Mass, to initiate the community into the celebration, to name the intentions and to ask for forgiveness, or in the prayer of the faithful, after the priest makes the initial invitation and closes with the concluding prayer, or after communion as a thanksgiving, which the priest concludes with the post-communion prayer.”

The cardinal attested that the new practice did not mean “removing the priest from his service as president of the assembly, since he is the one who is at the head of the celebration, and he authorizes these moments.”

The lay leader “promotes and guides the prayer of all,” as he does not pray in just his name. “It is another way for the assembly to participate; the content of the Roman rite is not changed, but its cultural expression,” said Arizmendi.


Pagan theology underpinning rite

The Vatican had been assessing the text since July of 2023, after Mexico’s bishops voted 103-2 in favor during the April 2023 plenary assembly of the rite. The bishops of Mexico discussed an initial draft version, which was then amended slightly for presentation to the Vatican.

Speaking last year, Arizmendi stated that the country’s bishops extended the proposals to “all the native peoples of the country,” rather than just to those of the San Cristóbal diocese. However, that nation-wide permission has not been officially given, though in practice it remains very unlikely that the rite will be limited to the areas outlined by the Vatican.

Dr. Hickson previously noted that a Mayan rite has already been practiced in the Diocese of San Cristóbal, as it has been approved by the Mexican bishops’ conference. (See her prior coverage HERE and HERE)

In the March 2023 draft of the rite sent to LifeSite, the role of the “principal” was posited as being key as such an individual would “become even more relevant during the period of absence of the clergy in our diocese.” Such a line prompts the suggestion of completely lay led ceremonies as a norm in the future, rather than simply certain parts of the Mass.

It is not yet clear from Arizmendi’s description if the “principal” will engage in the pagan practice of praying to the four directions of the earth. The March 2023 draft noted that “on special occasions this prayer can be realigned by invoking God from the four cardinal points.” To invoke God from the four cardinal points implies in the Mayan polytheistic tradition: the four directions of the earth—north, west, south, east—which are traditionally connected with gods. However this was not present in the draft sent to the Vatican last summer and seen by LifeSite at the time.

But despite this, the underlying pagan theology remains. The “ritual dance” Arizmendi mentions was described in the March 2023 draft thus: “the feet caress the face of Mother Earth, making light movements. The face of God is greeted by moving to the four directions of the universe.”

The Undersecretary of the Dicastery — Bishop Aurelio García Macías — was heavily involved in drawing up the rite. He told local media in March last year that the process was “a personal enrichment for me because I believe that the local experience of San Cristóbal de Las Casas has discerned, has been able to study, reflect and can be enriched with the universal experience of the Catholic Church.”

Meanwhile, another pagan-based rite is also under consideration by the Vatican. The Amazon, or Amazonian, rite is about to begin a three-year trial period later this year. The Amazon rite is a product of the highly controversial 2019 Synod of Bishops on the Amazon, or the Amazon Synod.

Among the many proposals raised by the Amazon Synod and its final document are the opening of the clerical state to women and admitting married men to the priesthood, in an attempt to make the Church more appealing to Catholics in the region.

This “Amazonian rite” would “expresses the liturgical, theological, disciplinary and spiritual heritage of the Amazon,” which would assist the “work of evangelization.”

Meanwhile, the Dicastery for Divine Worship has been accused of implementing a “persecution” of the Church’s traditional liturgy across the global Church.