Several news outlets have confirmed that a lightning strike destroyed the keys and hand of a statue of Saint Peter in Argentina on December 17, the birthday of Pope Francis and a day before the Vatican’s document Fiducia Supplicans approving “blessings” for homosexual couples was released.
The Lepanto Institute reported on Sunday that they sent an anonymous individual to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Rosary of San Nicolás, north of Buenos Aires, where the statue stands adjacent to the sanctuary, to take photographs and confirm the lightning strike initially reported on December 26 by Italian blogger Andrea Cionci.
“The lightning strike from December 17 is CONFIRMED,” shared the Lepanto Institute, mentioning that the lightning struck the statue despite several lightning rods located about 30-40 meters above it, as shown in the images.
CatholicVote also sent a journalist to the site, who likewise confirmed that the lightning struck the statue on December 17, “wiping out” the keys from the right hand of the statue of Saint Peter. The news outlet noted that the multiple lightning rods around make the incident “highly improbable.”
Cionci and others emphasized the remarkable timing and location of both the event. The statue is located in the Buenos Aires province, approximately 250 kilometers northwest of the city of Buenos Aires, where Francis was born, raised, and was an archbishop.
“What is striking, in fact, is that the event took place on Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s birthday, a day before the release of the Fiducia Supplicans statement that opens blessings for homosexual couples,” wrote Cionci.
Additionally, the Italian blogger highlighted that Saint Peter is traditionally depicted holding two keys: a golden key representing the pope’s authority to “bind and loose” in heaven and a silver key representing his authority to “bind and loose” on earth. This authority was given by Christ Himself, as recorded in Matthew 16:19: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
“It’s strange that the statue was holding only one key, it seems,” remarked Cionci. Traditional Catholic commentator Anthony Stine specified on Monday that according to independent researchers, while the lightning did indeed strike the keys and the right hand of the statue on December 17, the statue’s halo has been missing since September 2018, contrary to the aforementioned reports.
“Images from before September 2018 show the statue with a halo. But images from the end of September 2018 show it without a halo,” reported Stine. A photograph shared by Catholic blogger Ronald Conte shows the statue without a halo but with the intact key. Conte initially believed that photos of the statue after the strike were “fake.”
Stine suggested that the timing of the halo’s disappearance is significant because on September 18, 2018, Francis promulgated the apostolic constitution Episcopalis Communio, which “announces Francis’s intention to tear down the Catholic Church as it has existed and replace it with his synodal church.”
Stine further elaborated that some observers described Episcopalis Communio as implementing Francis’s apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, in which he expressed his intention “to profoundly reshape all ecclesial structures so that they become more missionary.”
The commentator also spoke about the significance of the destruction on December 17, emphasizing that “not only is the key missing, but also the hand that we are accustomed to associating with teaching authority in sacred art. It’s just gone. No other real damage has been done to the statue.”
“It’s almost as if, symbolically, the papacy itself is intact. The office is intact,” he continued. “Peter still has authority as an office, but this particular teacher no longer has authority. This is a kind of feeling I’ve had about this statue in context.”
According to Cionci, the sanctuary’s priests acknowledged that the statue was struck by lightning but disagree with his interpretation of the event, stating: “The sanctuary does not agree with the interpretation that has been given regarding the damage depicted in the image of the apostle Saint Peter.”
The Buenos Aires Herald reported on December 17 that a “strong storm” swept through the Buenos Aires province early that morning. In his video commentary, Stine showed a weather radar map confirming that the storm affected the area of San Nicolás de los Arroyos, where the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Rosary is located.
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