What is the meaning of the statue towards the end of Chapter 4?

Towards the end of Chapter 4, just before Ruvik reveals himself and re-animates the dead in the room, Sebastian finds himself in a large room with a number of switches he has to pull in order to drain the water first.

One switch on a platform above the water can be pulled 4 times, and each time it is pulled, the camera cuts away to a body tumbling out of one of the 2 chutes on each end of the room.

On the 3rd pull, a statue of what looks like the Virgin Mary comes out of the chute instead. Then one more body on the 4th pull and then nothing else comes out.

Does anyone know why the statue comes down? What is it for? It cannot be interacted with, but it's different so to me that tells me it could have some special meaning or purpose.

Honestly I don't quite understand what the whole exercise was for, since it didn't appear that the bodies could be interacted with either, but I didn't try to drain the water without first pulling the switch so I can't tell if it really is just an interesting diversion or an integral part of that scene.