PETA to Pope Benedict XVI: Veganize the Vatican

Taking a cue from Pope Benedict XVI's message for the Catholic Church's World Day of Peace, in which he calls for "a real change of outlook which will result in new life-styles" as a means to combat damage to the environment, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals vice president Bruce Friedrich fired off a letter asking the pontiff to become a vegan and decree that only foods free of animal products be served in Vatican City.

Citing a 2006 report from the United Nations' food and agriculture organization titled "Livestock's Long Shadow," in which the harmful environmental affects of meat production are detailed, Friedrich urges the pope "to consider the fact that the most effective action an individual can take to fight climate change is to go vegan." 

By cutting meat, dairy products and eggs from the Vatican's menu, Friedrich argues, Benedict XVI could further not just his goal of reduced energy consumption worldwide, but also influence his followers to live healthier lives as a result of vegan eating habits.  (Of course, he notes, animals raised for food stand to benefit from the Vatican's shift to veganism as well.)

The Catholic Church marks World Day of Peace on New Year's Day, but the pope's remarks were released in advance of the event.  No word from the Vatican yet on PETA's request, but we suspect the group isn't holding its breath.

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-- Lindsay Barnett

Photo: Pope Benedict XVI delivers the Sunday Angelus address to the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square on Dec. 27.  Credit: Riccardo De Luca / Associated Press

Comments

[A.G. Stockstill]

Message to PETA, go pack sand! You are honed from the same material as ACORN. PETA is full of activist, not animal lovers.

[Jan Fredericks]

The evil done to billions of God's creatures, God's animals, is sinful. We will all be held accountable some day for each one as Hebrews 4:13 says: "No creature is concelaed from him, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account".

We should do everything to give glory to God and to go a step further so that others can come to know God, who by the way has compassion on all He has made (see Psalm 145.9 and elsewhere). "So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. Avoid giving offense, whether to Jews or Greeks or the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in every way, not seeking my own benefit but that of the many, that they may be saved." St. Paul 1 Cor. 10:31-33
What we eat and drink should be done in the context of our relationship with the God we claim to love.
Let's repent as a Church starting now, this New Year 2010 and live for God and others. We will be held accountable some day and this needs to be taught from our spiritual leaders.
Catholic Concern for Animals-USA

[hosemonkey]

Like the leader of the world's Catholics needs advice from a bunch of whackos like PETA. Get a life PETA, lack of good meat protein has rotted your brains.

[Bill T]

Can we spend the new year ignoring PETA ? Please ? Pretty please with vegan, cruelty free, environmentally sensitive sugar substitute on top ? They are nothing but hypocritical attention whores. If we ignore them long enough, they will get so desperate they'll pull a stunt so big and stupid that everyone will know them for what they are.

[kristin]

I've got a better idea. All PETA members should immediately become practicing Roman Catholics. In exchange, the Vatican will become vegan.

[Dave]

I don't think you can find anyone more stupid that these brainless peta people..

[ArtsAlive]

The Vatican could set an example of compassion and environmental awareness for the whole world by going vegan. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that factory farming is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gases and global warming. You know, the kind of farming that produces MEAT! Hellooooo!

[L.A. Voter]

I'm not a big fan of PETA, but who says being an animal lover and being an activist are mutually exclusive? Although many activists, usually including PETA, fail to think out the true effectiveness of their message before yelling it, the kind of person who thinks "activist" is automatically an insult is often the kind of person who uses the words "activist" and "terrorist" interchangeably. So to you, #1, I say, "Tell your wife Mrs. Cheney I said hi..."

And comparing PETA and ACORN says more about you than it does about the issue at hand.

It certainly would behoove Pope Benedict to exhort Catholics to familiarize themselves with the suffering of all God's creatures, and then to do what they can to alleviate it and not add to it. He's supposed to be a moral leader and this is a moral issue.

[Jon K.]

PETA is an example of how people can become SO detached from common sense that they do not realize that they are making fools of themselves.

Do we need to protect animals from excess suffering? Of course.

Should we do that in a way that is so ridiculous that the discussion of protecting animals become laughable in the minds of the media of society? Of course not, because it undermines the very cause one values.

I absolutely hate people who lack common sense and empathy for the norm. Stupid, self-righteous, self-absorbed people.

[Cathguy]

Oh My Word!!!

What a brainless bunch of idiots!

I can't believe Peta has the hubris to demand the Vatican go "Vegan."

This is just plain silly. I resolve to spend the New Year ignoring PETA, and hoping they speak out publicly more. By doing so, many voters will associate what they have to say the with left, and maybe it will result in even lower numbers for the radically pro-death Obama regime.

[Jon K.]

Have you ever had dinner with a vegan?

It turns dining from a celebration of life to a moribund ritual of self-righteousness and shame. It's awful.

[P Boire]

Poor PETA people would do well to read Aristotle and Aquinas (as would anyof us; books like "Six Great ideas" by Mortimer Adler) and discover the reason for which things, including plants, pets and people exist. An intellectual foundation is clearly lacking in these people ruled by mere sentiment. Sentiment is fine, but it has to be ordered and reigned in by the intellect.

[L.A. Voter]

Jon -- respect for "the norm" is one of the most thoughtlessly overrated concepts out there. If people didn't think to question the norms of the past we would still have slavery. Black people and women would not be able to vote. In fact, if mankind didn't question the norm this country wouldn't even exist.

There's a difference between respecting people as you ask them to examine "the norm" and not questioning it at all. You blithely say, "Do we need to protect animals from excess suffering? Of course." But then you act as if promoting veganism has no connection to ending animal suffering. Millions of animals suffer on factory farms every single day, just so we can destroy our arteries, our healthcare system and our environment with bacon double cheeseburgers. There is a connection, whether you choose to see it or not.

In the same way, Al Gore has been rightfully challenged because he sets himself up as the spokesman for curtailing global warming, but has steadfastly refused to substantively address how factory farming exacerbates the problem. "The norm" needs to be questioned. I agree that the way PETA approaches things tends to create derision rather than thought, but the fact is if you want to save the environment and end "excess suffering" for animals (whatever you mean by that) mathematically the most effective choice you can make is to become a vegan.

It's actually funny that you write "Have you ever had dinner with a vegan? It turns dining from a celebration of life to a moribund ritual of self-righteousness and shame." Clearly you don't mean a celebration of anyone's life but your own, right? Because the very definition of moribund has got to be a dead animal lying on a table in front of you. But no doubt it's a drag for you to eat with people who choose not to kill. Conversely, I'm sure you're a delight for vegans at dinnertime, what with your contempt and hostility for their beliefs. It's absolutely un-American not to eat meat, isn't it?

And to "P Boire" - Do you think Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas actually knew for a fact "the reason for which things, including plants, pets and people exist"? Because they were humans, not gods, and their opinions as to why "things" like people and animals exist were just that: opinions. They didn't have inside info. Anyone with a moral viewpoint can have an equally valid opinion. I don't think a mink exists for me to wear its skin. I don't think it's moral to factory farm sentient creatures who can feel fear and pain, cruelly restrict their movements, and slaughter them just so I can burden the healthcare system with my self-inflicted type 2 diabetes, coronary disease and morbid obesity after a lifetime bacon double cheeseburger habit.

The one advantage I have over Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas is a few additional centuries of science that comes down on my side, as well as a few more philosophers who explored the radical notion that mankind may have some moral responsibilities to other sentient creatures on the planet. We can't be a neutral presence, either we mindlessly hurt other creatures or we try not to. Why is it so radical to consider that eons of destruction haven't worked out so well, perhaps we're looking at a norm that should be challenged?

That strikes me as an exemplarily Christian notion. And it wasn't so out of the blue for PETA to raise this issue; Pope Benedict has in fact spoken out against cruelty to animals in the past, particularly cruelty in factory farming.

[ArtsAlive]

My goodness, the meat-eaters have such foul mouths. It must come from eating putrifying flesh causing them to insult people who don't share their views. Factory farming has promoted mad cow disease, multiple e-coli epidemics, salmonella poisoning and campylobacter poisoning among other infections. It is also a scientific fact that livestock farming is one of the greatest contributors to the greenhouse gases. It is not just PETA that promotes veganism. Seventh Day Adventists also promote this healthier diet. Also Hinduism and Japanese macrobiotics. It would be more constructive to stop stereotyping people as "PETA-types" and lumping vegetarians and PETA as necessarily the same people, and instead, objectively evaluate the merits of veganism.

[Andre]

Acts 10
9 The next day, while they were on their way and nearing the city, Peter went up to the roof terrace to pray at about noontime.
10 He was hungry and wished to eat, and while they were making preparations he fell into a trance.
11 He saw heaven opened and something resembling a large sheet coming down, lowered to the ground by its four corners.
12 In it were all the earth's four-legged animals and reptiles and the birds of the sky.
13 A voice said to him, "Get up, Peter. Slaughter and eat."

Whom to obey, PETA, or GOD?

[L.A. Voter]

Andre -- the Bible also advocates slavery and stoning.

Who(m?) to obey? The human beings who wrote the Bible, or the Constitution?

There are all kinds of hideous cruelties in the Bible. There are also all kinds of tests. Maybe God's intent, if there is a God, is that we pick the least-cruel way to live our lives. I hardly think we can go wrong by trying to apply the Golden Rule to as many living creatures as we can. Not to mention that mankind at the time of the Bible didn't have as many dietary options as we do now. Maybe we do best to please God by trying to eat less meat, to think about what a hamburger really is, and maybe have one less hamburger a week.

At any rate, it makes me wonder when people use the Bible as an argument AGAINST being less cruel. You really think that's what Jesus had in mind? Respecting all life, and acting out of love and compassion rather than cruelty and capricious appetites seem like worthy Christian values.

[Lilianne Leger]

Hey wait a second here!
The Catholic Church had a long standing tradition about abstaining from meat either as penance, during Lent, every Fridays, life-long choice for nuns and monks.
These traditions were partially abandoned in the sixties and the seventies . I know, I was there.

The Catholic Church never condoned cruelty to animals, nor over exploitation of the environment or materialism. Peta has nothing to teach to the Vatican on these issues/.

[Janice Fredericks]

Actually, in the UK there have been pictures and articles written about 98-150 years ago concerning the cruelty done to animals for food and the church's involvement in killing them vs Jesus' as the Prince of Peace who cared for lambs.

Jesus and God have compassion on all of their animals. God had to put fear in them (Gen. 9) of humans. Before that, we all lived in harmony before sin came and caused chaos which is still prevalent in our world (and churches).