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.

Epstein files explode open as DOJ details discovery of powerful figures and more than 1,200 victims

DOJ publishes trove of Epstein files, says more to come after Friday deadline

House Republican Considering Plan to Expel Ilhan Omar from Congress

Bombshell Claim: Brown University Was Asked to Cut Cameras Earlier in the Year to Protect Palestinian Activists

As illicit vapes flood the country, authorities ramp up enforcement

Florida cold case breakthroughs: Sheriff’s unit cracks two long-unsolved killings

Graham leads bipartisan demand for tech reform vote to ‘bring social media companies to heel’

Schumer accuses Trump admin of Epstein files ‘cover-up’ amid document dispute

Chinese researcher on US visa charged with smuggling E. coli into the country, FBI Director Kash Patel says

Trump Admin Immediately Halts Visa Program That Allowed Brown and MIT Suspect Into the Country

Democrats’ last-minute move to block GOP funding plan sends lawmakers home early

Virginia Court Ignores ICE Detainer, Releases Illegal Alien Accused of Murder Hours Later

Judge tosses Trump-linked lawsuit targeting Chief Justice Roberts, dealing setback to Trump allies

Extremely Strange 25-Year-Old Connection Uncovered Between Dead Brown Shooting Suspect from Portugal and Murdered MIT Professor for Portugal

Sports reporter’s 3-year-old opened door for grandpa who then found couple dead in home: report

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?”