Pope Francis Asks for Forgiveness After Amazon Statues Stolen, Thrown Into River in Rome

Pope Francis asked Amazonian bishops and tribal leaders for forgiveness Friday after indigenous statues were stolen from a Vatican-area church and thrown into a nearby river.

The wood-carved figures of naked pregnant women, known as Pachamama, were brought to the Vatican to be displayed during the pope’s three-week assembly of Amazonian clergy, called a synod.

The pope insisted there was no intention of idolatry, which undercut conservative claims that the statues are symbols of pagan worship.

“Above all, this happened in Rome and as the bishop of this diocese I ask forgiveness of the people who were offended by this gesture,” Francis told the synod hall.

The Vatican has said the statues are symbols of life, fertility and Mother Earth.

The battle for Congress is just the beginning. Here’s what’s at stake on Election Day

Ex-Chicago FBI chief sues DOJ, claims he was ousted over failed anti-ICE prosecutions

Mamdani threatens to sue Trump admin over ICE’s use of city-owned lots for immigration enforcement

Democrats rally around el Sayed after Stevens defection in final hours of campaign

‘Ilhan Omar’ May Have Already Compromised National Security, Foreign Affairs Committee Members Say

Ex-West Point cadet sued for secretly drugging pregnant girlfriend with abortion pills

JD Vance says Haley Stevens’ endorsement of GOP’s Mike Rogers will ‘certainly’ help Michigan Senate race

How a midterm tie gets settled in the case of the Senate

Judge Boasberg orders DOJ to stop demanding California officials set aside 20,000 ballots

Fed. Judge Suspended for Psychiatric Eval After Anti-White Outburst in Court Leads to Astoundingly Racist Quotes

Michigan County Stonewalls Reporter’s Attempt to Expose What El-Sayed Had to Say About Oct. 7

Illegal Alien Arrested for Rape After Being Released by Dem-Appointed Judge

EXCLUSIVE: Woman allegedly raped by illegal alien after Clinton-appointed federal judge ordered his release

Haley Stevens’s Mike Rogers endorsement stuns black voters in Michigan

Watch: Democratic Governor Swats Reporter’s Camera After Being Asked Uncomfortable Question

The wooden figures were found unharmed in the Tiber River this week. The pope said he would consider having them displayed during the final Mass of the synod on Sunday.

The theft was caught on surveillance video Monday as thieves took the figures from the Santa Maria in Traspontina church, just down the block from St. Peter’s Square.

The video appeared to show at least two men enter the church before dawn, take the statues placed at an altar and then throw them in the river. The act was celebrated by conservative Catholics who deemed the statues pagan idols.

Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, the conservative German fired by Francis in 2017 as the Vatican’s doctrine chief, said it was a “great mistake” to bring the statues to the Vatican in the first place.

“To throw it out can be against human law, but to bring the idols into the church was a grave sin, a crime against divine law,” he told conservative U.S. Catholic broadcaster EWTN.

While the theft was cheered by conservative Catholics, progressives denounced the act as racism.

“Can you imagine the conservative outcry if someone tossed the image of Our Lady of Czestochowa into the Tiber?” the National Catholic Reporter, a progressive Catholic magazine, said in an editorial this week. “We do not use the term ‘racists’ lightly, but what else is it?”