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.

Mamdani housing czar called ‘White, middle-class homeowners’ a ‘huge problem’ during 2021 podcast appearance

ICE agent shoots Venezuelan national in Minneapolis after shovel attack during ambush: DHS

Taxpayer-funded Minnesota charter school shuts down in-person learning amid ICE raids

Top federal Minnesota prosecutors officially terminated after dispute over ICE shooting probe

House GOP revisits Biden handling of Jan. 6 with new panel

‘It’s Stopping’: Trump Makes Major Claim About Deadly Iranian Protests

PHOTOS: Here Are 5 of the Worst, Most Evil Illegals that ICE Officer Ross Was Working to Arrest When Renee Good Tried to Murder Him

Key Republicans flip, kill effort to restrain Trump’s policing power over Venezuela

Top Iranian official downplays death toll, blames ‘Israeli plot’ as US considers strikes

ICE Arrests Afghan ‘Criminal Alien’ Who Stabbed His Sister for Being a ‘Bad Muslim’

Woke Singer Maren Morris Admits She’s ‘Lost a Lot of Fans’ After Years of Attacking Conservatives

Kiefer Sutherland Arrested After Allegedly Assaulting Rideshare Driver, Posts $50K Bond

Secret Service Agent on JD Vance’s Detail Suspended After Concerning Undercover Video Emerges

Border Patrol union endorses Abbott for fourth term as Texas governor

GOP senator’s SOMALIA Act would force Minnesota fraudsters to repay stolen taxpayer funds

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?”