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.

DHS says four House Democrats ‘chose to stand with criminal illegal aliens’ after visiting ICE detainee

NYC Council welcomes new mayor with bill that would dramatically raise salaries for city officials

Taliban vows to respond after alleged Pakistani strikes rock Afghanistan overnight

Trump Admin to Begin ‘Comprehensive Review’ of Every Refugee Admitted to US Under Biden

Trump, Duffy slam Pritzker’s ‘soft-on-crime policies’ after Chicago woman set on fire on train

Missing Virginia high school coach investigated for child porn and soliciting a minor, police say

Fox News Politics Newsletter: Former Army captain warns Dems’ ‘unpatriotic’ video could spark chaos

‘World’s Strongest Woman’ Winner Disqualified After Being Found to Be a Man

Trump calls Chicago ‘out of control’ after train attack left woman critically burned

Driver of stolen car rolls into oncoming traffic on Colorado highway killing 5, including 3 children

Father of cheerleader who died on Carnival cruise subpoenaed to testify in custody case

Report: The FBI Has the ‘Seditious Six’ in Its Sights, Is Pursuing Interviews with Each Lawmaker

DHS torches ‘bamboozled’ Dems for calling ICE crackdown ‘vicious lies’

Trump can’t resist Biden autopen dig as he declares last year’s Thanksgiving turkey pardons invalid

Hegseth rips Mark Kelly’s post about his service: ‘You can’t even display your uniform correctly’

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?”