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.

Javier Milei escalates Falkland Islands feud after Trump questions UK backing

Susan Collins Gives Hilarious Answer to Whether She’ll Bring Up Troy Jackson’s ‘Personal Life’ in Maine Senate Race

Top DHS lawyer turns tables on 128 ex-judges after Bar declines ‘Worst of the Worst’ complaint

Ted Cruz names ‘most powerful Democrat’ as he warns socialist rise has paralyzed bipartisanship

Blue state school district accused of defying Supreme Court, hiding gender transitions from parents

Coast Guard recovers 47 bales of suspected marijuana worth $2.4M after intercepting go-fast vessel

Trump administration proposes stripping tax-exempt status from schools using race-based programs

Karen Read’s lawyer says Clancy defense attorney may be ‘cut from a different cloth’ as deliberations drag on

US military took down approximately 100 suspected cartel drones at southern border in August

Lindsay Clancy jury wraps day 6 with bombshell one-juror standoff, deliberations to resume Friday

WATCH: Bystanders, police lift Volkswagen off woman pinned underneath after dramatic e-bike crash

Missouri high court blocks GOP-backed congressional maps ahead of midterms; Trump blasts ‘ridiculous’ ruling

Clancy Verdict Deadlocked at 11-1, Defense Pushes for Holdout to Be Removed in Heated Exchange with Judge

Excavation set to begin on Trump administration’s 250-foot triumphal arch amid legal battle

GOP candidate gets busted trying to plant drugs on his political rival

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?”