Shocking Video Reveals Priests’ Perverted Views on Bullfighting as PETA Appeals to Pope to Cut Church Ties to Blood Sport
05.06.2026
Sydney – A disturbing new video released by PETA contains footage of several prominent Catholic priests in Spain making extraordinary remarks in defence of bullfighting, even comparing it to the death of Christ, despite clear Catholic doctrine forbidding cruelty to animals. The footage of the priests’ remarks is interspersed with actual footage of bulls being terrorised, stabbed, staggering, and slowly and painfully dying. A priest claims bullfighting is “a symbol of Christianity,” while another insists, “What you are seeing in the ring is a sacrifice that is not violent,” as a bull can be seen choking on his own blood. PETA is calling on Pope Leo XIV to formally condemn the Church’s ties to bullfighting.
The priests’ statements fly in the face of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which states that humans must not “cause animals to suffer or die needlessly,” and Isaiah 1:11, which declares that “God does not want the blood of animal sacrifices”. As far back as the 16th century, Pope Pius V—who has since been canonised—banned bullfighting, which he described as “cruel and base spectacles of the devil and not of man” and contrary to “Christian piety and charity”, yet Catholic priests often officiate at religious ceremonies in bullrings and minister to bullfighters in arena chapels. Every year, tens of thousands of bulls are tormented and slowly slaughtered in bullfighting festivals honouring Catholic saints.
“It’s disgraceful that some priests are openly flouting Church doctrine to endorse the torture of animals in front of bloodthirsty crowds,” says PETA Executive Agent Mimi Bekhechi. “PETA is urging Pope Leo XIV to take a stand against the abuse of God’s creation and cut the Catholic church’s ties with these vile spectacles of death.”
During bullfights, the animal is repeatedly stabbed with barbed harpoons before a sword is driven into his lungs and a dagger is used to sever his spinal cord, not always hitting its mark. The bull may be left paralysed or dragging himself about, and is often conscious as his ears are cut off as trophies.
PETA— whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”— points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits. For more information, please visit PETA.org.au and follow PETA on Facebook and Instagram.
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