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.

Former Trump lawyer accuses federal judge of making ‘baseless accusations of lying’ after departure

Missouri couple accused of locking teens in chicken pen, shooting them with BB guns in abuse case

House passes AI education bill for small businesses in landslide 395-14 vote

Cities Church Issues Full-Throated Response to Invasion of their Sunday Worship Service by Leftist Agitators

Illegal immigrant allegedly ran from deadly wrong-way DUI crash that killed motorcyclist, records show

DHS says ICE agents rammed by vehicles amid Minneapolis enforcement surge: ‘Aggressively assaulted’

Ilhan Omar vows ‘not to give ICE a single cent’ in heated congressional funding fight

ALERT: Dem Rep Publicly Supports Assault on Christian Worship Service by Leftist Agitators

Pennsylvania county official seeks to evict of DHS and ICE over three years of unpaid rent

One Incredibly Simple Map Explains Why Greenland Is 100 Percent Vital to US Security

The Harris Campaign Probed Whether Tim Walz Was a Chinese Agent During VP Selection Process: Report

ICE: Minnesota won’t let us arrest 1,360 criminal illegal immigrants in state jails

Tariffs, Greenland, and a ‘nasty’ binder clip: Five takeaways from Trump’s marathon first-anniversary press briefing

California GOP asks Supreme Court to block House map ahead of midterm elections

Gavin Newsom Freaks Out After Arriving at Davos and Hearing What World Leaders Are Saying About Trump

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?”