Pope John Paul II has put you in charge of the revision of the catholic catechism, therefore you are directly responsible for the betrayal of the animal creation by the Vatican. Without the slightest trace of compassion for the unimaginable misery in the animal world it is written there as follows:

2417:

"Animals are created for food, clothing, leisure"

Have you never heard about the horror-conditions in factory-farming, animal transportation and slaughterhouses? Why do you not condemn it? Why do you not mention the healthy vegetarian way of life (like it is written in the book of Genesis)?

What do you have against imitation fur and leather etc?

Hunting, brutal training for circus-acts, bloody bull-fights etc. Is this really in line with the Christian spirit? Indeed I wonder, when I see that in spite of over 50,000 protest letters to the Pope during last year, the Spanish priest Angel Rodriguez Tejedor in Titulcia has not stopped the torture to death of young bulls in the church square after Sunday mass. Whilst the innocent creatures of God are agonising and dying in heir blood the priest is auctioning their cut-off ears to the excited crowd.

2446:

"One should not give affection to animals and it is also unworthy to spend money on them, it should rather be donated to the poor."

You are badly positioned, Cardinal Ratzinger, with your appeal to save money on the already exploited animals, to improve conditions of the poor. This could have been done with the enormous amounts that have disappeared from the Vatican during the past 20 years under the financial master-swindler Archbishop Paul Marcinkus. However it still could be done by selling the incommensurable values accumulated in giant atom-bomb-proof vaults in the Vatican.

2234:

"Animal experiments are morally acceptable."

With this sentence you have approved one of the biggest and most horrifying crimes of humanity. You have betrayed the entire animal creation - like Judas betrayed the Son of God. The word of Christ. It would have been better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone around his neck - which also goes for you, Cardinal Ratzinger.

Under steadily-growing pressure from worldwide anti-vivisection groups, the US Secretary of State for Health, Louis Sullivan (a front man for pharmaceutical interests) looked for sympathisers for the criminal, money-spinning business of animal experimentation. He sure found one: the Vatican. Your approval, in the catechism, has been of tremendous help for the greedy bunch of useless "researchers". Another reason might be, as word is out, that Marcinkus has invested a lot of Vatican-money into lucrative vivisection laboratories and that therefore church authorities find animal experiments 'morally acceptable'

For God's sake, Cardinal Ratzinger, how have you been able to accept in the catechism the misery and agony of the exploitation of animals?

This is the biggest disaster to come to God's creation. Countless Christians, including myself, who are fighting the incredible injustice towards the animal-world have been waiting for a helping word from the Vatican. In vain! Now they will totally despair over the new catechism and turn their backs on the church which worries more about payment of the contribution of social security - 2436, and the use of contraceptives - 2370, than the protection and well-being of living sensitive creatures of God.

(Hans Fischinger 27.5.1993)

The author is photographed with Hans Ruesch.

In villages all over Spain, upheld and blessed by local priests, religious celebrations are carried out in which animals are ritually tortured to death. For example every year at Coria, Western Spain, in honour of San Juan, bulls are released onto the streets of the town and men, women and children use them as living dartboards, throwing steel-tipped darts into them aiming for the 'bull's eye'. The animals are covered with darts. To make them move and liven things up they twist and pull their tails, beat them and stab them with barbed metal spikes. Their tails and ears are cut off whilst they are still alive. They are drained of blood and castrated. the animals' tormentors smear themselves with blood. They then parade testicles around he town. This is not an isolated incident. Every year thousands of such 'festivals' take place. They are called Sanguinary Fiestas Populares - or blood fiestas.

Not only does the church promote this barbarity to entertain and amuse its people - it also profits from it... for the darts these magnificent animals are peppered and persecuted with are sold by he catholic nuns who make them throughout the year for the festivals!

The bull is peppered with darts in he town of Coria.