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.

CIA Accused of Raiding Tulsi Gabbard’s Office Seizing JFK, MKUltra Documents Set for Declassification

Trump’s upbeat China message collides with deepening Beijing rivalry

China rolls out red carpet for Trump as Xi meeting tests trade, Taiwan tensions

AG aims to retry Alex Murdaugh ‘quickly’; both sides enter courtroom chess match with each other’s game plans

California death row inmates watching porn on taxpayer-funded tablets, evading security controls: report

It never ends: GOP moves to fund border, Democrats blast Trump spending

Howard Lutnick testified he saw Epstein’s massage table as ‘sexual in nature’ during 2005 visit

Video: Ex-Trans Speaker Postpones TPUSA Speech as Antifa ‘Militia … on Cross-Sex Hormones’ Threatens Violence Cops Weren’t Prepared for

Vance turns up heat on states with federal cash threat over Medicaid fraud crackdown

JD Vance’s Fraud Task Force Makes California Pay $1.3 Billion Price for Defrauding Taxpayers

Poll: Thomas Massie Trailing Trump-Backed Primary Challenger After Leading Big Just Weeks Ago

CIA Furious as Active Agent Testifies on Fauci’s Enormous Role in COVID ‘Cover-Up’

Children’s book author sentenced for husband’s poisoning death as judge calls her ‘too dangerous’

Arrest of gang member convicted of murder puts Dem state’s sanctuary policies on blast

Red-State Governor Cancels Special Redistricting Session for Congressional Seats

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?”