"New Amazon rite of the Mass to enter 3-year ‘experimental phase’"

The highly anticipated and controversial Amazon rite of Mass will enter a three year 'experimental phase' later this year, a key theologian has attested.

In a new report by Vida Nueva digital, groundbreaking details were revealed about the proposed Amazon rite of Mass – a fruit of the 2019 Amazon Synod held at the Vatican.

While not giving any verbatim quotations, Vida Nueva stated that 'the Amazon rite will enter the experimental phase – which will last three years until 2028 – at the end of 2024.'...

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.

Additionally, based on the Second Vatican Council’s defense of 'liturgical pluralism,' the Amazon Synod’s final document called for 'a rite for native peoples' which would be based on their 'worldview, traditions, symbols and original rites that include transcendent, community and ecological dimensions.'

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

Details have since been scarce on what the rite might look like; however, Pope Francis has suggested it could be formulated in line with the Zaire rite, which has been in use in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 1988.

In a preface to a 2020 book on the Zairean rite, Francis wrote that the rite 'is considered an example of liturgical inculturation.'

'One feels that in the celebration according to the Zairian rite, a culture and spirituality animated by religious songs with African rhythm, the sound of drums and other musical instruments vibrate, which constitute a true progress in rooting the Christian message in the Congolese soul. It is a joyful celebration,' he commented.

Francis directly linked the Zaire rite – replete with local customs, native dancing, singing and clapping – to the forthcoming Amazon rite...

In the meantime, and alongside the quietly developing Amazon rite, the Vatican is currently mulling over another pagan-linked, inculturated rite.

The Mayan rite proposed by Mexico’s Catholic bishops is now being examined by the Dicastery for Divine Worship. Though the dicastery has been slow in issuing a statement on the rite – much to the consternation of the Mexican bishops – the rite was drawn up with the key involvement of Dicastery Undersecretary Bishop Aurelio García Macías, suggesting that Vatican approval is a mere formality.

LifeSiteNews’ Dr. Maike Hickson has provided an in-depth analysis of the Mayan rite, the draft and final copies of which both she and this correspondent have studied.

The final draft of the Mayan rite contains liturgical actions based on, and drawn from, pagan actions. Such a liturgy would then be at the liberty of the individual cleric involved, who would feel at ease incorporating the wider, accompanying pagan aspects of the rituals which the Vatican would have approved.

Such a style gives an insight into the likely future of a similarly inculturated Amazonian rite.