Animal defenders organizations held in Murcia, on Friday March 23 an anti-bullfighting procession before the statue of the “Cristo de los Toreros” , worshiped by fullfighters, to reject animal torture and the complicity of the Catholic Church of the Region of Murcia.

They recalled that in 1567 Pope Pius V decreed the papal bull De Salutis gregis dominici, which forbade bullfighting under pain of excommunication. He wrote that such spectacles have nothing to do with piety and Christian charity, and branded them as bloody and shameful practices, specific of the devil, not men.

Animal advocates also argued that in Chapter II “ the Gospel of Creation” of the encyclical “Laudato Si”, Pope Francis wrote: “ It follows that our indifference or cruelty towards fellow creatures of this world sooner or later affects the treatment we mete out to other human beings. We have only one heart, and the same wretchedness which leads us to mistreat an animal will not be long in showing itself in our relationships with other people. Every act of cruelty towards any creature is “contrary to human dignity”.