October 24, 2019

Anna Murray 

The thief stole the Aboriginal statue from the church near the Vatican and threw it into the Tiber River to show a conservative opposition to the first Latin American pope. Pope Francis apologized to the Amazon bishop and tribal leader.

Francis, known as the "Bishop of Rome," refutes the allegations that naked wooden figures of pregnant women are symbols of paganism and that they are "in the absence of any idolatry intentions" to be placed in the church.

During the occasion of the apology of the pope, he held a three-week synod on Amazon on Saturday, when over 180 bishops and cardinals coming from nine Amazon countries voted on a document that proposed to protect the Amazon rainforest and serve indigenous peoples.

Theft video, circulated broadly by conservative and traditional Catholic media, shows that at least two people entered the church before dawn, took the statue from the chapel of the chapel and threw it into the Tiber River.

The statues were later recovered, but conservative Catholics who believed that the statue was an idol of the pagans celebrated the theft. Francis as the Vatican sacked Cardinal Gerhard Müller in 2017. He said that the "biggest mistake" was to bring "idol" to the church first.

The Vatican insists that these statues are a symbol of life, fertility and motherhood of the earth, and condemns that theft is a form of hatred, "attitude of violence and intolerance."
    

The stolen statue highlights the depth of opposition from conservatives to Francis and his agenda for the poor, immigrants and the environment.

Photo:Webshot.