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.

Slain college student’s mother vows ‘fight for justice’ after illegal immigrant charged in Chicago killing

What? Toronto’s Foreign-Born Mayor Warns ICE to Stay Out of City – Where It Has No Authority

Watch: ICE Agents Working at Airport Give Whining Leftist the Exact Response He Deserves

Gas thief creeps into learning center, drains van serving students with disabilities

Jeffries declines to break with indicted Democrat after ethics panel’s guilty verdict

Southwest pilot aborts Hollywood Burbank landing because runway ‘wasn’t quite clear’: report

Hegseth Slashes ‘Faith Codes’ in Move to Make Chaplains the Spiritual Backbone of the US Military

Father of slain 20-year-old killed by illegal immigrant issues stark warning after Sheridan Gorman killing

Education Department Abandons Headquarters as Agency Heads for Total Extinction

Trans Tide Is Turning: Idaho Criminalizes Trans Use of Incorrect Bathrooms in Private Businesses

JD Vance says he was ‘obsessed’ with UFOs, believes aliens are actually ‘demons’

Notice Anything With NBC’s Headline About Dem Rep Getting Found Guilty By House Ethics Committee?

Op-Ed: This Is Newsom’s Biggest Problem – He’s Shallow

Climate Change Reparations Melted by New Court Ruling in Deep Blue State

Not Only Is Radical, Senile Maxine Waters Refusing to Retire at 87, She Could Chair Powerful Committee Come Next January

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?”