Two activists from animal rights group PETA interrupted Pope Francis' general audience on Wednesda🦹y, shouting and holding up banners against bullfighꦚting before being escorted out of Paul VI Hall.
The two were wearing t-shirts♚ readin♌g "Stop blessing corridas" and holding banners saying "Bullfighting is a sin".
PETA has been pleading with the Pope to cut t𝕴he Catholic Church's ties with bullfighting and condemn the "despicable blood sp🐈ort".
According to the organisation, each year, tens of thousands of bulls are killed in bꦇullfighting festivals globally, many dedicated to Catholic saints. In these events, mounted assailants thrust lances and banderillas into the bull, causing acute pain and restricting its movement.
🌊"As numerous countries are wisely banning this sick form of entertainment, Pope Francis must immediately denounce this blood sport and cut the Catholic Church's shameful ties wi𝓀th bullfighting," it said in a recent statement on its website.
The Vatican did🅺n't immediately comment on Wednesday's protest.
British priest Terry Martin has recently criticised bullfighting in a campai🅘gn with PETA and called on Pope Francis to condemn it.
The priest from West Sussex, UK, posed in a red chasuble next to a bull𝓰 with the inscription: "It is a sin to torture animals".
PETA has pointed out that Pope Francis wroওte in his encyclical Laudato Si' that "any act of cruelty to any creature is contrary to human dignity and that, as early as the 16th century, Pope St. Pius V banned bಌullfights that were deemed cruel and far removed from Christian piety and charity".
