Free Republic

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. Francis insisted that the carved wooden statues of naked pregnant women were brought to the Vatican for display during his Amazon synod “without any intention of idolatry,” undercutting conservative claims that they were symbols of pagan, idolatrous worship. He said carabinieri police had found the so-called Pachamama statues unharmed in the Tiber, and would consider letting the Vatican display them...

Vatican communications chief denies Amazon Synod guests prostrated themselves before wooden statues Amazon Synod guests bow to wooded statues in Vatican gardens' ceremony prior to opening of Amazon Synod, Oct. 4, 2019, Rome. VATICAN CITY, October 25, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) ― A top Vatican media official declared today that there had been no ceremony in the Vatican Gardens in which guests of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazonian region prostrated themselves.  Despite video footage of the October 4 event that clearly shows men and women in a circle bowing to the ground before various statues — one of which...

If you want a window into the crisis the Catholic Church faces, look to the Amazon Synod now underway in Rome. The synod made headlines this week when two anonymous operatives entered the Santa Maria in Traspontina Church near St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome early Monday morning, removed at least three pagan fertility statues from the side altars, and threw them into the Tiber River. They videotaped the whole thing and issued a statement saying faithful Catholics “are being attacked by members of our own Church.”Why were pagan fertility statues—idols, really—on display in a Catholic Church in the first...

The Pope’s Pitiful Reign of Error The upcoming Pan-Amazon Synod is shaping up to be a disaster of historic proportions I picked up a copy of L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper which reads less like a Catholic periodical than a back issue of the Nation. The sheer BS and left-wing propaganda of its contents are stunning: “Climate Change is a Challenge for Society as a Whole” (that was its front-pager); “The Theology of the Noun” (called the “Holy Father’s extemporaneous discourse,” which is too impenetrably flaky to even summarize); “The Green Alphabet of Pope Francis”; “Protect Forests to Ensure...

[Catholic Caucus] Francis Reaches a New Ridiculous Low: Pagan Rituals on Vatican Hill Pagan fertility ritual in the Vatican gardens Nearly two thousand years ago, Saint Peter,the first bishop of Rome, was martyred on Vatican Hill, across the Tiber from the historical center of the City. The great shrine and Basilica dedicated to the Prince of the Apostles rose on top of it as Catholics were freed from oppression, and gradually, over the course of the centuries, as the main papal places of worship and administration faded away, in the Lateran and the Quirinal, the buildings surrounding the Vatican...

Protesters accuse interfaith event at São Paulo cathedral of left-wing activism SÃO PAULO - An interreligious ceremony held at the cathedral of São Paulo to support the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon was accused by critics as a cover for left-wing activism inside the Church.The Sept. 30 event was organized by the inter-religious coalition Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns Front for Justice and Peace. It was attended by Cardinal Odilio Scherer, the Archbishop of São Paulo, as well as Cardinal Claudio Hummes, the president of the Pan-Amazon Ecclesial Network, who will be the relator general for the synod.Leaders of other...