Many
of us hope and pray that the present Pope will be one of compassion for not only the poor of the world, but for the billions of farm animals who
suffer because of our meat lust. However, I read somewhere that his favorite
dish is chicken.
I met Andrew (not his real name) on the Catholic Vegan and the Catholic
Vegetarian Facebook sites. I found him to be an indefatigable optimist in believing
and hoping that Pope Francis will become a vegan. As he himself wrote in one
of his comments-he has been writing Pope Francis since March of 2013 asking him to
become vegan. On his last facebook entry he sincerely hopes that on the Pope's
birthday-December 17th- he will make an announcement that he has become vegan.
I truly admire "Andrew" for this highly unlikely wish and wrote him on
Facebook: You are an incredible optimist. However, let's all pray that the Holy
father is moved in this direction. Right now I'm just hoping he would become vegetarian.
That would be a huge step for this pontiff who according to my knowledge has not
spoken in behalf of animals since becoming pope.
Andrew's reply to me: Suzana, I have been sending messages to Pope Francis
since March 2013 trying to convince him of why the most powerful religious leader
in the world should be a vegan. If he starts out as vegetarian, fine.............
My real fear is that Pope Francis, the leader of 1.2 to 1.3 billion Catholics just does not
get it. (This I agreed with.) If God does exist and decided to live on Earth a few
months every year, God would be a vegan. There would be no factory farms or
slaughterhouses. There would be no hunting. There would be no experimental labs, etc. ( I
couldn't
argue with this sentiment either.)
He continued: Pope Francis truly has the chance to save the lives of
billions of animals-setting a powerful and convincing precedent for thousands of religious
leaders to emulate. Sadly, I believe this to be too grandiose of an idea because even
while he might command the respect of other religious leaders -- they are too often
wed to their own cruel practices involving the treatment of animals. For example,
every 5 years the people of New Delhi offer the slaughter of thousands of farm
animals they bring before the temple of their goddess Gadhimai. I very much doubt that
what the
Holy Father would do or say re the treatment of animals would have any
impact on this cruel form of goddess worship.
And then even the practice of some Spanish and Mexican people who engage in
bull fighting and other festivals involving animal cruelty would still go on by
some- despite the teachings of the church in this regard. Sadly, even Catholics don't
respect the Holy Father even when he condemns these cruel practices. I also
mentioned to Andrew my belief that had there been a pope to truly espouse animal
concerns it would have been St. Pope John XXIII. We even entertained hopes that St. Pope
John Paul II
would have had these charisms, but sadly did not. And personally, I feel
that any Pope who doesn't recognize the inequity involved with denying women the
priesthood will also be truly not as concerned as he should be re animal suffering and our
complicity in it. However, I truly hope that I am wrong.
THEN I WAS BLOWN AWAY BY ANDREW'S COMMENT:
Suzana, I really believe the Pope should be a woman. Generally speaking,
men have destroyed he Earth and trillions of animals throughout history. Women
protect and care for the Earth, their children, and animals much more then men. A
woman Pope would be much easier to convince to be a vegan and would be very successful promoting veganism everywhere.
And my final comment to Andrew: What a beautiful comment re women and the priesthood. You are indeed a very humble, caring man because you not only
care about animal suffering, but you recognize the suffering of women who aspire
to the priesthood. I was never one of them, but I feel for those who have this
calling. I also read a comment from a former nun who said had there been women bishops
maybe the horrible scandal of priest pedophilia would never have gone unaddressed
for so long. And a thought re the Stations of the Cross which I make almost
daily. I love
that the women were there for Jesus. Of course His Mother was
there-Veronica (who some say was not real), the weeping daughters of Jerusalem and the other
women who joined Mary at the foot of the cross. Where were the men? And sadly
this pope I believe even stripped Fr. Helmut Schuler of his priestly faculties
because he believes in a women priesthood. A couple of years ago he came to Cleveland and
spoke to a group of women who are agitating for a woman priesthood. Sadly, this pope
seems not to be the pope of real and true compassion in regards to woman and
animal needs.
Again, Please God, I hope I am wrong
