The animal rights organization claims that 10,000 bulls are killed each year in bullfights dedicated to Catholic saints.
Two PETA activists, NGO that defends animal rights, They interrupted a speech by Pope Francis. They rose from the audience during their weekly general audience and approached the stage. They shouted and showed signs protesting against bullfighting.
They wore t-shirts on which was written the phrase: ‘Enough blessing runs‘, and banners that read: ‘The bullfights They are sin’.
PETA has called on the Pope to sever the Catholic Church’s ties to bullfighting and condemn it.”despicable bloody practice“. After the protest, the activists were escorted out of the Paul VI Hall of the Vatican.
What relationship do bullfights have with the Catholic Church?
According to PETAevery year Tens of thousands of bulls are killed in bullfighting celebrations Worldwide. Many of them, dedicated to Catholic saints.
In these events, the bulls face the fate of rods, where they receive a punch on the morrillo, and the fate of banderillas where three pairs of banderillas are placed on them that cause, according to animal rights defenders, a acute painand furthermore, their movements are restricted.
“Pope Francis must immediately denounce this ‘bloody practice’ and cut off the shameful ties of the Catholic Church with the bullfights“, he noted in a recent statement on his website.
He Vatican did not make any immediate comment on the protest held this Wednesday.
British priest Terry Martin has recently criticized bullfighting in a campaign with PETA, and has asked Pope Francis to condemn her.
The priest from West Sussex, United Kingdom, posed in a red chasuble next to a bull with the inscription: “It is a sin to torture animals“.
PETA has noted that Pope Francis wrote in his encyclical Praised yes that “any act of cruelty towards any creature it is contrary to human dignity” and that, already in the 16th century, Pope Pius V prohibited bullfighting, which was considered “cruel” and “far from Christian piety and charity.”
See in the video placed at the top of the article how the protesters interrupt the Pope’s speech.
