‘Unusually powerful’ earthquake hits city where Pachamama idolatry performed

CUSCO, Peru (LifeSiteNews) — A massive 6.7-magnitude earthquake could be felt in Cusco, Peru, Thursday afternoon, a week after a Vatican official participated in a Pachamama ritual there alongside two Catholic bishops.

The “unusually powerful earthquake,” which struck near Arequipa on August 20, could be felt by about 2.4 million people, including those in Cusco, but resulted in no deaths and minimal injuries and structural damage, per Earthquakelist.org and other news outlets.

Exactly a week earlier, on August 13, during a conference in the same Peruvian city ahead of Pope Leo XIV’s November visit to the country, Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, a priest and canon lawyer who serves in the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and as papal commissioner for clerical sexual abuse cases, took an active part in an Andean ritual dedicated to Pachamama, which involved coca leaves, food offerings, and guided breathing exercises.

Earthquakes have historically been associated with God’s divine punishment for sin.

This is the site of the Pachamama ritual to welcome Leo. https://t.co/2EP7Ymv4Pp

— Anthony Stine (@pontificatormax) August 20, 2026

Video shared with Spanish news outlet InfoVaticana showed Bertomeu placing coca leaves among the ritual offerings. Bishop Lizardo Estrada Herrera, secretary-general of CELAM (Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council), and Bishop Miguel Ángel Cadenas of Iquitos, Peru, were also in attendance during the pagan ritual.

WATCH: Pope Leo XIV’s upcoming Peru visit prepared by Pachamama ritual.

A senior Vatican official participated in the ritual alongside two Catholic bishops.https://t.co/34MlkMCU5J pic.twitter.com/TPdHQm6i6J

— Sign of the Cross (@CatholicSOTC) August 18, 2026

Michael Hichborn reported this week that the event was also organized “to dialogue, share their demands, and build agreements around human rights and the common good,” drawing together:

Representatives of social organizations, indigenous and peasant communities, women’s and youth groups, LGBTIQ+ people, people with disabilities, human and environmental rights defenders, relatives of victims of state violence, and faith communities.

“So, in addition to opening the meeting with idolatrous veneration of a pagan deity, the meeting was held in conjunction with LGBT groups to include such in the promotion of ‘human dignity’ and ‘human rights,'” Hichborn stated in his article.

While this earthquake may not be the result of God’s punishment, the possibility cannot be ignored. The Catholic Church teaches that as a result of the fall, evil entered the world and affected nature, creating the possibility for natural disasters.

Indeed, in the book of Genesis, we see God punish the world for its grave sins by destroying it through the great flood, or the deluge, sparing only Noah and his family.

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