FILE - A Amazonian indigenous statue of a pregnant woman is seen as participants in the Amazon synod, attend the opening prayer in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Monday, Oct. 7, 2019. Vandals have beheaded a sculpture featuring the Virgin Mary giving birth to Jesus that had been exhibited in the cathedral in the Austrian city of Linz and drawn criticism from some traditionalist Catholics who said it was blasphemous. The identity of the vandals wasn’t known. But Alexander Tschugguel, an Austrian traditionalist Catholic responsible for the so-called “Pachamama” act of vandalism during the Vatican’s 2019 Amazon synod, said in a social media post Tuesday July 2, 2024 that he had been contacted by those responsible. Tschugguel became a hero to traditionalists in 2019, when he snuck into a Vatican-area church, stole Amazonian indigenous statues of pregnant women, and threw them into the Tiber River in a videotaped act that was quickly shared online. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)
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