Leo XIV Appoints 19 Consultors – Pachamama Worshipper, Yoga Lover and Abu-Dhabi Activist
Emilce Cuda (Pontifical Commission for Latin America)
In 2022, she criticized the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade (legal abortion in the USA), warning that many Catholics “confuse defense of life with defense of ideological positions.” She stressed that human dignity goes beyond abortion and euthanasia to include “‘in-between’ issues.” (NcrOnline.org)
Mónica Santamarina (World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations)
She advocates expanded roles for women in Church governance. In June 2023, Santamarina called for combating “clericalism” by increasing women’s presence in seminaries and Church leadership. She warned that after the Synod the Church could again "close its doors".
Sister Mary Teresa Barron
In October 2024, Synod delegate Sister Mary Teresa Barron said the question of women deacons should not be whether women “can or cannot be ordained,” but whether “the Spirit is calling women,” noting that “some feel called to the priesthood or diaconate” (Vatican press conference).
Ana María Bidegain, President of Pax Romana (ICMICA–MIIC)
She told CatalunyaReligio.cat in June 2023 that the “great challenge is how we help articulate and build the synodal Church.” Other quotes from the interview: “Without the work of the laity, Liberation Theology would never have been born.” Or: “There are many groups and movements committed to feminism in the Church.” “When you say that a woman or a man must do this or that, what is that? That is an ideology!”
Catherine Cornille (Boston College, USA)
She promotes “religious pluralism,” saying that “Buddhist meditation” and “Hindu practices of yoga” can help Christians “live up to our own highest goals.” (mi.byu.edu)
Sofía Nicolasa Chipana Quispe (Comunidad de Sabias y Teólogas de Abya Yala, Bolivia)
She is associated with Indigenous, feminist, and decolonial theology in Latin America, promoting “prayer with Pachamama.” In May 2025, she told Claudio Carvalhaes: “We are not Pachamama. We are fully a part of Pachamama, we belong to Pachamama, but we are not the entire Pachamama.”
Fr Edmund Kee-Fook Chia, SVD (Adamson University, Philippines)
He is known for a pluralist theology of religions in Asia. In a December 2019 paper for the University of Melbourne, he asserts the Indian bishops’ anti-Catholic heresy that “God uses other religions… as instruments for salvation.” Chia holds that religious plurality is not merely a sociological fact to tolerate, but something that has meaning within God’s design and salvific plan.
Syrian-Italian priest Wasim Salman, incardinated in the Diocese of Palestrina
He believes that interreligious dialogue is the only way to peace between religions: “It is the love for our Muslim brothers that will mark our activities, especially since the Church shares with Islam the same concerns described and developed extensively in the Document on Human Fraternity.” On Islam, he speaks of “this great religion whose spread is impressive today.”
Full list of new consultors:
André Kabasele Mukenge
Wasim Salman
Rafael Vázquez Jimenéz
Isaac Zachariah Mutelo, O.P.
Emmanuel Pisani, O.P.
Mary Teresa Barron
Anne Béatrice Faye, C.I.C.
Ana María Bidegain
Edmund Kee-Fook Chia
Sofía Nicolasa Chipana Quispe
Catherine Cornille
Emilce Cuda
Giuseppina De Simone
Michael Daniel Driessen
John Lagerwey
Rita Moussallem
Fabio Petito
Mónica Santamarina
Michel Younès
Picture: © Mazur/cbcew.org.uk, CC BY-NC-ND, #newsIjyqnmjqjw