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.

Ethics panel clears Gallego as Luna declares, ‘Once a creep, always a creep’

Amy Coney Barrett and John Roberts Side with Liberal Justices on Key Election Integrity Case

Conservatives revolt after Trump-appointed Barrett joins liberals in ‘shockingly wrong’ mail ballot ruling

Netanyahu’s lawyers compare his treatment by court to Adolf Eichmann as yearslong trial could go to 2028

Judge delays trial for White House Correspondents’ Association dinner shooting suspect

Wife of Louis Farrakhan dead at 90

Who is Lisa Cook? The central bank governor at the heart of the Supreme Court’s Trump-Fed showdown

American Airlines flight aborts Miami takeoff after business jet enters runway

Luigi Mangione returns to court for jury selection hearing after reported plea deal falls apart

Deadly Palisades Fire Defendant’s Case Ends in Mistrial as Jury Remains Deadlocked

Banned Film About Anti-Islam Vigilante Is No. 1 on Amazon

Watch: Dems Trot Out Biden at Gala, But Now He Can’t Even Leave Podium Without Directions

Europeans Discover Simple Luxury As They Descend On US For World Cup

Fetterman Blasts His Own Party’s ‘Orgy of Socialism’ Primary Results

In Apple TV’s ‘Star City,’ Russians beat us to the moon

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?”