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
