Peta goes to the Vatican as it fights bullfighting

Animal rights’ protesters interrupted Pope Francis’s first weekly audience following his month-long July break.

The two women from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) brandished “Bullfighting is a sin” signs while wearing T-shirts bearing a “Stop blessing bullfighting” slogan.

They managed to walk down the aisle of the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall before they were escorted out by one of the Vatican’s Swiss Guards and security officials.

Peta has long urged the Pope to sever the Church’s traditional links to, and apparent approval of, bullfighting in predominantly Catholic countries and instead condemn a “despicable” bloodsport.

Described as a cultural institution in Spain, bullfighting is increasingly questioned by the population and a 2022 survey by the BBVA bank found that 80 per cent opposed it.

Nevertheless, bullfighting is still legal in most parts of Spain and Portugal as well as some areas in France and Latin America.

This was Peta’s second protest in Rome, after two activists interrupted a service led by the Pope at the St Paul Outside the Walls basilica in January 2024.

On that occasion, two women displayed a banner with a photograph of Baltazar Enrique Porras Corrado, a Caracas (Venezuela) archbishop who has been identified as a bullfighting aficionado.

Peta’s website also reproached priests for blessing bullfighters before they entered the bullring, pointing out that bullfights are often held to celebrate a saint’s day and other important holy days.

“The Catholic Church can and must help end this abuse by condemning bull torture in the name of religion,” the association declared.

As head of the Church, Francis has yet to comment publicly on bullfighting although in 1567 Pius V did just that, banning it as “better suited to demons rather than men” and “contrary to Christian piety and charity.”