It is reported that Bergoglio has "apologised." Not to you and me and the Catholic faithful for the abominable acts of pagan worship, but for those who did their Christian duty and took the idols from the Temple and disposed of them.
Bergoglio has also announced that they will be present in St. Peter's at Mass on this coming Sunday, the Feast of of Christ the King!
He dares to mock the King!
If you do not believe that the man is a malefactor and is perfectly possessed by the devil himself, then you are blind.
Bergoglio hates you. Worse, he hates Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The stench from this man's rotting corpse will not be contained in his grave. May it come soon.
Viva Cristo Rey!
Full transcript of Pope's remarks on 'Pachamama' statues
Good afternoon, I would like to say a word about the pachamama statues that were removed from the Church at Traspontina, which were there without idolatrous intentions and were thrown into the Tiber.
First of all, this happened in Rome and, as bishop of the diocese, I ask pardon of the people who were offended by this act.
Then, I can inform you that the statues which created so much media clamor were found in the Tiber. The statues are not damaged.
The Commander of the Carabinieri [Italian police] wished to inform us of the retrieval before the news becomes public. At the moment the news is confidential, and the statues are being kept in the office of the Commander of the Italian Carabinieri.
The leadership of the Carabinieri will be very happy to follow any indication given on the method of making the news public, and regarding the other initiatives desired in its regard, for example, the commander said, “the display of the statues at the closing Mass of the Synod.” We’ll see.
I delegate the Secretary of State to respond to this.
This is good news, thank you
AP. VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis asked forgiveness Friday from Amazonian bishops and tribal leaders after thieves stole indigenous statues from a Vatican-area church and tossed them into the Tiber River in a bold show of conservative opposition to history's first Latin American pope.
Speaking "as the bishop of Rome," Francis insisted
that the carved wooden statues of naked pregnant women had been placed in a
Vatican-area church "without any intention of idolatry," undercutting
conservative claims that they were symbols of pagan, idolatrous worship.
Francis' apology came as his three-week synod on the Amazon
wraps up Saturday when more than 180 bishops and cardinals from nine Amazonian
countries vote on a final document synthesizing proposals to better protect the
Amazon rainforest and minister to its indigenous peoples.
The most controversial proposals include whether married men
can be ordained priests to address the acute shortage of clergy in the Amazon
region, where isolated communities can go months without having a proper Mass.
Also debated were whether women — who already carry out the
lion's share of the church's work — could be ordained deacons in a new
Amazonian rite that takes into account the unique spirituality of Amazonian
faithful and their relationship with nature.
Several Amazonian bishops expressed support for both
proposals, which would represent a dramatic shift from centuries of Catholic
tradition. But Vatican cardinals who are also voting members of the synod
expressed caution and insisted on the gift and value of a celibate priesthood.
While those theological debates raged in the synod hall, the
more significant debate concerned the videotaped theft early Monday of the
indigenous statues from the Santa Maria in Traspontina church, just down the
block from St. Peter's Square.
The church has been the headquarters of parallel synod
events featuring indigenous, environmental and Catholic groups from the region,
and the statues were featured prominently in some of the indigenous services.
According to video of the theft that was widely circulated
on conservative and traditionalist Catholic media, at least two men entered the
church before dawn, took the statues from the altar of a side chapel and threw
them from a bridge into the Tiber River.
The theft was celebrated by conservative and traditionalist
Catholics who considered the statues pagan idols that had no business being
placed at the altar of a Catholic Church, much less used in official Vatican
ceremonies.
The statues had actually sparked outrage at the start of the
synod, when one was featured at an indigenous tree-planting ceremony in the
Vatican gardens attended by Francis.
Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, the conservative German sacked by
Francis in 2017 as the Vatican's doctrine chief, said the "great
mistake" was to bring the "idols" in the church in the first
place. He cited the biblical First Commandment prohibiting idolatry or
worshipping false gods.
"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.
The Vatican has insisted the statues were symbols of life,
fertility and Mother Earth, and denounced the theft as a hate-filled,
"violent and intolerant gesture."
"In the name of tradition and doctrine, they
contemptuously threw away a symbol of maternity and sacredness of life,"
the Vatican's editorial director Andrea Tornielli wrote in Vatican media.
He noted that one of most influential Catholic thinkers, St.
John Henry Newman — who was canonized during the synod — once recalled that
Christianity's most important symbols all had pagan origins.
The theft has dominated debate in Catholic media and
Catholic Twittersphere, with conservatives cheering the destruction of what
they consider symbols of pagan worship and progressives accusing the culprits
and their supporters of racism.
"We do not use the term 'racists' lightly, but what
else is it?" asked the National Catholic Reporter, a progressive Catholic
magazine, in an editorial this week.
"Can you imagine the conservative outcry if someone
tossed the image of Our Lady of Czestochowa into the Tiber?" it said,
referring to the "Black Madonna" icon that was particularly dear to
St. John Paul II, a hero to many conservatives.
Whatever the symbolic meaning of the statues, their theft
and destruction underscored the increasingly bold lengths to which
conservatives are going to voice opposition to Francis and his agenda focusing
on the poor, migrants and the environment.
Already, some traditionalists have accused him of heresy for
showing flexibility toward allowing divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to
receive the sacraments.
Any decision to open up the priesthood to married men or to
ordain women deacons will likely only fuel their anger and increase calls for a
future pope who is more rooted in orthodox doctrine like John Paul and emeritus
Pope Benedict XVI.
Francis is well aware of his conservative opponents — he
recently quipped it was an "honor" to be attacked by his American
critics.
Other critics are increasingly striking out against him from
within the Vatican walls. As the synod was underway, a new scandal over the
Vatican's shady finances exploded, sparking alarm among Francis' supporters
that there was a concerted attack against him by the Italian "old
guard" within the Holy See bureaucracy.
In his morning homily Friday, Francis reflected on his own
inner struggle to want to do good but not be able to do it.
"It's a battle between good and evil," he said.
