Landmark PETA Legal Case Pushes Vatican to Investigate Church’s Ties to Cruel Bullfighting
After a PETA video exposé caught five Spanish priests praising bullfighting, including one who described the bloodsport as “a symbol of Christianity” and another who compared it to the sacrifice of Christ, PETA has instructed leading canon lawyer Laura Sgrò to file a legal case with the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Clergy, seeking an investigation into the priests’ actions and disciplinary measures for their public promotion of bullfighting.
Citing Canon Law and Catholic Doctrine, PETA hopes this first-of-its-kind motion will result in the Catholic Church severing ties with any activity that sees animals abused and killed for entertainment.
What Do Priests Have to Do With Bullfights?
Beyond the conduct of the five priests involved, this case could set a legal precedent like no other and profoundly test the Vatican’s interpretation of the Church’s historical teaching on modern-day animal suffering.
In its filing, PETA argues that publicly championing bullfighting is fundamentally incompatible with Catholic teaching. Despite this, the Church is entrenched in the bloodsport.
Bullfights are often held in honour of Catholic saints or during holy Christian celebrations, and many Catholic priests officiate ceremonies at the events. Most bullrings also have on-site capillas (chapels), where priests bless matadors and offer prayers before the spectacles begin. Some priests even attack bulls in arenas themselves.
In its suit, PETA argues that priests promoting bullfighting defy historical Vatican prohibitions, including a decree issued by Pope St. Pius V that imposed excommunication on clerics who participated in or attended such spectacles.
The complaint also argues that priests who promote or organise bullfighting may violate:
- Canon 285 §1, which requires clerics to avoid conduct unbecoming their office.
- Canon 285 §4 and Canon 286, which restrict clerical involvement in the administration of funds and commercial activities.
- Canon 1389, concerning the abuse of ecclesiastical office.
- Canon 1339 §§1-2, which empowers Church authorities to admonish or rebuke conduct that causes scandal among the faithful.
PETA also cites the Catechism of the Catholic Church which states that it is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to “suffer or die needlessly” and argues that the five priests in the video may have violated canon law and failed to meet a cleric’s duty to embody compassion, mercy, and respect for life.
“If Catholic doctrine firmly condemns gratuitous violence towards animals, the position of priests who not only attend such spectacles, but actually promote and glorify them, is wholly incompatible with the clerical state and with the dignity of the pastoral ministry entrusted to them.”
PETA is asking Church authorities to:
- Investigate the five priests to establish what happened, how serious their actions were, and whether they can be held responsible under Church law.
- Discipline or penalise the priests.
- Order the priests not to make further statements, participate in events, or publicly express support for bullfighting.
- Require the priests to pay an amount determined by the Dicastery, which PETA would use for animal-protection campaigns.
From lighting up the Vatican to standing in front of the Pope with its message, this legal action is the latest in a long line of PETA protests, letters, celebrity campaigns and appeals targeting the Catholic Church’s ties to bullfighting.
What’s Wrong With Bullfighting?
Each year, hundreds of thousands of bulls are barbarically killed in bullfighting events in Spain, France, Portugal and parts of Latin America.
Bulls aren’t only killed, but tormented and mocked. Some have a flaming pitch attached to their horns, while others are forced into the sea, where they may drown. Others still are chased through slippery streets by crowds who herd them toward bullrings. In the ring, bulls are the subject of staged, ritualistic slaughter; stabbed until they’re woozy, weak and disoriented before being killed, their ears and tails held aloft as grim trophies.
Bulls are gentle individuals with unique personalities. They form social bonds with their friends and family, enjoy play, and learn from being together. The bible teaches that “He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man”. It’s time for the Church to give bulls the respect they deserve.
You Don’t Have to Be the Pope to Help Bulls
Priests who preach compassion while celebrating the torment and killing of animals are contradicting the values they are supposed to represent, but you don’t have to be clergy – or even Catholic – to condemn this cruelty and help bulls.
Join PETA to add your voice to the thousands calling on Pope Leo XIV to stop promoting this bloodsport.
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