Society for the rights and the liberation of animals, Slovenia
Date: October 2, 2006

Questions for papa Benedikt XVI
about attitude of catholic church towards animals
 
Dear friends of animals!
 
I send you questions for papa Benedikt XVI about attitude of catholic church towards animals. These questions we send to Vatikan, but papa did not answer on them.
 
I suggest you send him the same questions. If he get thousands of letters from all over the world, maybe he will start think about church's destructive and hostile attitude towards animals.
 
Please send these questions to following e mails: office@net.va, lev@publish.va, ctv@ctv.va.
 
You can publish these questions in your magazine or web site.
 
Please, also send these qustions to your friends, media, politicians and priests in your country.
 
We are strongy convicted, when catholic church will respect animals, they will have a better future.
 
Best greetings!
 
Damjan Likar, editor of magazine Liberation of animals
 
P.S. Please send me e mails from media from your country. I would like to send them very important articles about animal rights.
 
Let's build together a kind world for animals!

1. Jesus was a vegetarian, a great friend of animals and was vigorously against any killing. Why doesn't the Church, or You personally, respect that?

2. It would be a salvation for animals, if You told your believers and the world, that Jesus was against killing animals and didn't eat them. Is it possible for You to do it this Christmas?

3. We claim that animals are our friends and have a soul. They are social beings, who want to live, and their purpose on Earth is not for us to exploit them and eat them. We didn’t give animals their lives and don’t have the right to take their lives. What is Your opinion in this respect?

4. In a prayer Our father we pray „on earth as it is in Heaven“. Does this mean that in Heaven they slaughter and eat animals and that there are flowing streams of animal blood?

5. As You come from Germany, You probably know that the Kingdom of Peace among humans, nature and animals is being established there, which was announced already by the prophet Isaiah and then by Jesus. This year our society visited that area and without exception we agree that Gabriele Foundation is extremely important for the whole Earth and all people. We almost couldn’t believe when keepers of Gabriele Foundation told us that the Church is against them and even instigates hunters to disturb and bother animals and people there. According to Your references to Jesus it would be expected of You to provide financial support for this project. Will You do that? Will You warn the Church in Bavaria to stop disturbing this Foundation and its estate?

6. Do You think that animals have an immortal soul?

7. There is a saying that eyes are the mirror of the soul. Have you ever looked an animal into its eyes? Even animals can often overwhelm us, when we look into their eyes, as if there is something holy, a life that God gave. Do you think God wants us to take lives that He inspired?

8. Saint Francisco of Assisi was aware of the holiness of all living beings. The Church even proclaimed him a saint and yet the Church doesn’t respect his attitude to animals. Why is that, and isn’t a saint someone, who by their way of living on Earth came very close to God?

9. Do You recognize the right of animals to live? If not, why? If yes, what will You do to make this right a reality?

10. Is God the Creator a vegetarian or a meat eater?
11. Do You think the world would be a better place, if all politicians were vegetarians?

12. Do You think the Catholic Church would be better if Catholics were vegetarians?

13. At the Council of Ancrya in year 314 the Catholic Church prohibited and cursed vegetarianism. For the next thousand and even more years clerics and their helpers would pour liquid lead into mouths of vegetarians, if they wouldn’t convert to meat eating. As past decisions, which haven’t been revoked, are still valid today, vegetarians and the rest of the democratic public are interested, when are You going to apologize to vegetarians for the crimes and revoke their banishment (anathema)?

14. Why did the Church persecute vegetarians in the past and even cursed them, when these people by not eating meat protected God’s creatures from suffering and terrible death?

15. As the Catholic Church still supports meat diet, can You assure people that meat is safe and healthy food, although it is scientifically proven that meat is a risk factor for many civilization diseases? What is Your opinion of infectious diseases (aviary influenza, BSE, SARS …) that all originate in animal meat and actually represent a grave danger for humanity?
16. How can the Catholic Church support hunting and animal testing, when God said: Do not kill!

17. Does God the Creator, who is the absolute love, as also Your Church teaches, agree with terrible suffering and barbaric murdering of animals at hunting, animal testing and in slaughterhouses?

18. Even though the Church teaches not to kill, a lot of its members kill very often or take part in killing animals in woods and on fields, in slaughterhouses and testing laboratories. Doesn’t the commandment „Do not kill!“ apply to them?

19. Friends of animals (such as international organization PETA) are rapturously reporting that You, Mr Ratzinger, as before Mr Woytila, respect animals and recognize them as a part of God’s creation. When will You turn Your words into animal friendly practice and use Your absolutistic power and competence You have as a Pope and trigger a theological process to return animals their soul? This would be the basis for equal treatment of people and animals and for gradual suppression of cruelty to animals.
20. According to past and current theory and practice of the Roman Catholic Church – the Inquisition, the Crusades, approving of animal testing, etc. – it is justified to assume that the Roman Catholic Church, with Vatican at the head, is the carrier of culture of death. It is true that today the Catholic clergy doesn’t kill animals directly any more, with their own hands in churches like did the Temple clergy in Old Testament or like the Muslims still do today. But why are then animals killed in the most brutal way just at the time of the greatest Catholic holidays, Christmas and Easter, and all in the name of Prince of peace, Jesus Christ, who came on this planet for animals and nature as well – not just for people? Christmas and Easter are supposed to be holidays to remember and remind of God’s mercy, but for animals these are holidays of cruelty and horror! Will You, Mr Ratzinger, as publicly declared friend of animals and as a current Pope do something to stop this Christmas-Easter practice? A good start to make a difference for animals would be to write a circular letter, in which You would order Your clergy to stop blessing ham and other meat. At the same time it would be good to prohibit Hubert’s masses and blessing of corpses of ruthlessly killed wild animals. By doing that, your words about respecting animals as God’s creatures would become a reality.

21. Jesus Christ was a simple and humble man, who made a living with His own hands as a carpenter and in His free time taught for free the truths of God that He respected. Jesus Christ was and is the Prince of peace, who came here for people, animals and whole nature as well. A large part of the world public sees You, Pope Benedict XVI. – and former Popes, professional scribes – as the absolutistic ruler of the world Catholic empire that in the name of Jesus actually fights against Him. Why are You and members of Your religious society convinced that the Catholic teaching is in agreement with the teaching of Jesus Christ? Are the Holy Inquisition, of which You were a chief inquisitor for decades, and the Crusades for example in agreement with the ten commandments („Do not kill!“ for example)? Or the approval by the Catholic Church of using animals for nutrition and vivisection for that matter?

22. Jesus was born among animals, which were at that time the only ones to accept Him. This event contains a symbolic message that God makes no distinction between people and animals. Moreover, this event reflects that in hearts of animals there is more unselfishness and compassion than in hearts of people. This is clear also from the „gratitude“ in the form of cruelty that we show to animals in return to what they did for Jesus. When will You as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, which declares itself for the successor of Jesus Christ, do something to make the Church start treating animals in such a way as did Jesus of Nazareth, who always tried to save animals from suffering and death?

23. Do You think that Jesus, to whom You refer in Your actions, would approve of Your attitude to animals?

24. Do You think it is possible to assume that Jesus Christ, a teacher of peacefulness and mercy, would limit this mercy to people and exclude animals?

25. Do You think that His warning, where He says that the one who holds a sword will be killed by a sword, excludes a butcher knife?

26. You were nominated a holy father, but at the same time You support killing and consciously violate the fifth commandment. What is holy to You?

27. When will the Catholic Church delete all animal-hostile records in the Bible that were included on the initiative of the clergy?

Resource: Magazine Liberation of animals, october 2006,
Edited by The Society for the Rights and the Liberation of Animals, Slovenia, info@osvoboditev-zivali.org , www.osvoboditev-zivali.org