Amazon Carvings Used During Vatican Gardens Ceremony Tossed Into Tiber by Catholic Faithful
“This was done for only one reason: Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, his Blessed Mother, and everybody who follows Christ, are being attacked by members of our own Church.”
I recently reported that at the Amazon synod, Pope Francis created a stir by pondering the possibility of married priests.
But that wasn’t the only significant controversy associated with the event. A video going around shows a man throwing statues in the Tiber used in a Vatican garden ceremony and placed by an altar in Rome’s Church of Santa Maria in Transpontina.
The figures have been present at several events connected to the Vatican’s Amazon synod, and have been the subject of considerable controversy: some have characterized them as images of the Blessed Virgin Mary, others as the indigenous religious figure “Pachamama,” while Vatican spokesmen have characterized them more vaguely as symbols of “life.”
From the four-minute video it appears the event took place around dawn Oct. 21, when a person holding the video camera appears to enter the Church of Santa Maria in Traspontina. The church is in the immediate area of the Vatican, and has been the location of events at which the controversial carved figure of a woman has been present.
The rough translation of “Pachamama” is Mother Earth. This is an Andean goddess concerned with fertility, plenty, the feminine, generosity, and ripening crops, besides providing protection.
While no one has claimed responsibility, the men involved released a statement.
“This was done for only one reason: Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, his Blessed Mother, and everybody who follows Christ, are being attacked by members of our own Church. We do not accept this! We will no longer stay silent! We start to act NOW!
Because we love humanity, we cannot accept that people of a certain region should not get baptized and therefore are being denied entrance into heaven. It is our duty to follow the words of God, like our holy Mother did. There is not second way of salvation.
Apparently Vatican officials ignored the concerns of traditional believers who considered those figures akin to pagan fertility goddesses.
Even before the three-week Amazon synod opened on Oct. 6, conservative and traditionalist Catholics had blasted its agenda as a heretical celebration of paganism, given its deference to indigenous cultures and spirituality.
Their criticism reached a fever pitch at the synod opening, when Francis presided over a prayer service in the Vatican gardens featuring the statues of naked pregnant women that were presented to the pope. Conservatives said the “Pachamama” statutes were pagan idols; the Vatican said they were symbols of life and fertility.
I asked a young Roman girl why the idol was still in S Maria Transpontina and not floating down Tiber
She said, “The same reason there are so few babies in Rome and so many ‘bath houses’ ” pic.twitter.com/fqIvFUpIXh
— Monsignor Ferrari (@ServizioVatican) October 17, 2019
Reports indicate that the Vatican is considering pressing charges once the identities of the statue grabbers are known.
Vatican spokesmen have reacted with outrage after a local Italian newspaper carried a story on the unceremonious immersion of the fertility idols with the headline “Justice is done.” REPAM, a Catholic network that advocates on behalf of Amazon peoples and is headed by Synod leader Cdl. Claudio Hummes, has condemned the act “of violence” in a statement published Monday.
“We deeply regret and at the same time denounce that in recent days we have been victims of acts of violence, which reflect religious intolerance, racism, oppressive attitudes, which affect above all indigenous peoples, a refusal to build new roads for the renewal of our Church,” the statement read.
Meanwhile, Catholics are deeply unhappy with the use of these figures at the heart of Catholicism.
They must thank that for now no bishop has been thrown into the Tiber. But the patience of Catholics has a limit #Splashamama #Pachamama #SinodoAmazonico #AmazonSynod #Vatican https://t.co/dmYcPphD17
— Kattoliko Pensiero (@kattolikamente) October 22, 2019
Twisted view of it. These were IDOLS being worshipped in a Catholic Church, One,True GOD’s HOUSE & Vatican Gardens. It shouldn’t have happened and removal/burning should’ve been immediate. In previous times Pope, Cardinals, Priests would’ve been burned or thrown into the Tiber!
— Bernadette (@BernadetteG1) October 23, 2019
After that heroic act, Bergoglio and all of his errant minions in the Vatican should have. Even rounded up and tossed into the Tiber River as well!
— Ange Boursiquot (@BoursiquotAnge) October 23, 2019
Given how rapidly the public is turning against woke environmentalism, Catholic leaders should consider that those devoted to the faithl will clearly rebel against woke religion.
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Comments
The Catholic church has been syncretistic and idolatrous in the outlying dioceses for centuries with things like this or various cults of the saints. I’m surprised this is where anyone has drawn the line.
Bernadette tweeted: “These were IDOLS being worshipped in a Catholic Church, One,True GOD’s HOUSE”
Paging John Calvin, paging John Calvin…
I thought it was a time honored tradition for the Roman Catholic church to take a local idol, call it a Saint or Santo, put it in a niche in the local cathedral, and then tell the locals they’re all good Catholics now. Just keep sending in those collections.
Your blatant snide disdain for Christianity notwithstanding, Catholic Saints and their likeness/image are not “idols”. Like the Holy Mother Mary, they are not worshiped, but many Saints are richly and devotedly venerated. Prayers for the intercession of heavenly Saints are extremely common too. However, even in veneration and in prayer for intercession, Jesus Christ crucified and risen is the center of focus. Suffice it to say, there is a difference between veneration and idol worship. https://www.catholic.com/tract/do-catholics-worship-statues
The unclothed and uncovered wooden statues from the Amazon Synod were and are still worshiped by the Amazonians, and they were the centerpiece of a tree planting ceremony with Pope Francis at the Vatican. Not once was Jesus Christ’s likeness displayed during the pagan ceremony much less presented as the centerpiece. Not once was Jesus Christ so much as mentioned by name during the pagan ceremony.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qebfx3M7j_8
On a side note, meaningful supplemental charity for the stricken, the feeble, the poor, the disabled, and those with no income and/or way to care for themselves or even feed themselves and/or their children costs a lot of money. Churches/Parishes/Dioceses also have to pay for construction, maintenance, utilities, insurance and all the other usual things that prevailing laws and just plain good common sense requires. People who choose to give freely to the Church does no harm to you — so why should you even care about that and express such disdain in the slightest, sport.
Oh I like Christianity plenty! But I thought we were talking about the Catholic Church. ba-dump cha!
Really, I get along with Catholics just fine, have Roman Catholic relatives, I’ve been to mass. The Catholic Hierarchy are the ones I have a problem with.
Bigotry is never charming. Leave it at the Know-Nothing meetings.
At least someone read The Ten Commandments.
The adaptation of local religious symbols and making them ‘Christian’ is indeed an old practice, e.g. Egyptian gold, frankincense and myrrh; Christmas Trees; Easter, goddess of spring, and spring equinox, Saint Patrick of Ireland. The destruction of pagan symbols has also been common, but is appalling in modern days.
The more fundamental problem is the disgusting alteration in the Papacy, protecting the clergy’s ability to rape children, promoting the beliefs of ‘Saints’ Marx and Lenin. Attempts to destroy western civilization in the name of helping the poor. It was only a matter of time before somethings began to explode. (Yes, I did leave the Church as these things became clear and the abuse obvious.)
The Pachamama is indeed a pagan idol ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachamama ). What’s more, in the part of Latin America where I reside, the Pachamama is central to the discourse of eco-fruitcakes who’ve come here from developed countries to live.
Oh, here we go again! While faithful Catholics everywhere are cheering the removal and destruction of these hideous, demonic, idolatrous carvings from a church sanctuary, Protestants eagerly line up to rub salt in the wounds that these faithless prelates have caused.
Bull. I’m a Protestant, and I applaud the removal of the pagan idols. They have no place in a Christian church.
And I’d bet that the vast majority of Protestants don’t care one way or the other about what Catholics do to each other as long as we don’t get sucked into it.
Please read my comment above… oh…and I am Southern Baptist. For the papacy, we all were blessed with Pope John Paul II. In the choice of Pope, sometimes G-D gets to choose and other times only the Cardinals.
I propose a multi-denominational council to be formed to investigate this potential crime, with quarterly meetings in Bobs House of Pasta in central Rome to debate out rules of behavior and plan our investigation. Of course, those of us located at a distance will need to have our travel and lodging comped. Since we do not want to unduly burden the Catholic church with these expenses, it is only proper that the people crying out for environmental justice come forward with the funding, so send those checks and money orders in…
But thus shall you deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their pillars, and cut down their sacred trees, and burn their statues in a fire.
And you shall destroy their altars, break their pillars, burn their sacred trees in a fire, and cut down their gods’ statues, and destroy their names from that place.
Amen and amen.
And woe betide the who speak of the Carbon Credit, as it is a false god.
KJV: “Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.”
No wiggle room there.