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.

Karoline Leavitt welcomes daughter Viviana: ‘perfect and healthy’

Rabid beaver attacks boy fishing at New Jersey lake, prompting health officials to warn residents

Hantavirus cruise death toll rises to five after eight confirmed infections: WHO

Gorsuch highlights staggering decline in civic literacy that prompted him to author new book

Top Spanberger ally targeted in FBI corruption probe has long history of controversy

Watch: Tom Homan Ruins Kathy Hochul’s Night With Unexpected Update on Trump Policy on Live TV

Border Patrol Raids Disney Cruise Ship, Finds Every Parent’s Nightmare Lurking on Board – This Is What Dems Want Defunded

Feds seize mountain of fentanyl from ‘open-air drug market’ in massive crackdown targeting gang crews

Americans keep moving to Texas and Florida — but one other red state is growing even faster

China orders firms to ignore US Iran sanctions, daring US to enforce crackdown

Mamdani Berates Billionaire Outside His Residence Near UnitedHealthcare CEO Assassination Site

Minnesota off-loads fraud cases onto federal investigators due to overwhelming backlog

Oregon burglary suspect nabbed after crashing SUV during police chase: video

Rudy Giuliani out of ICU, continuing to recover in hospital: ‘He’s winning this fight’

DHS urges Wisconsin ‘sanctuary’ county to keep illegal immigrant accused in elderly sexual assaults jailed

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?”