FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday, October 30, 1997
CONTACT:
Norm Phelps, 301-739-7087
Mike Chiado, 248-352-2610
Professor Sobosan, 503-283-7274
DETROIT, Mich. -- In recognition of St. Hubert's Day, animal rights activists will gather at the Blessed Sacrament Cathedral, 9844 Woodward, on Sunday at 9:30 a.m., November 2nd, asking parishioners and Archbishop Maida to discourage priests from the recreational killing of wildlife. Activists will make a visual statement about the inconsistency of moral leaders killing for fun with charades involving actors as priest and victim deer.
The Fund for Animals recently asked fourteen Catholic priests who jointly own the St. Hubert Hunt Camp near Alpena to stop taking part in their violent hobby of killing deer. Letters to the priests remain unanswered, but Archbishop Maida wrote that he found nothing wrong with priests owning a hunting camp.
"How can members of the clergy, those to whom the community looks for moral guidance, find pleasure in donning camouflage, hiding in ambush and killing innocent creatures for sport? How can church leaders condone their actions?" asks Mike Chiado, Michigan Coordinator for The Fund for Animals.
Jeffrey Sobosan, Catholic priest and professor of theology at the University of Portland, notes that, "Men of God are surely mistaken in thinking Christian Doctrine would condone violence as a recreational pursuit." Professor Sobosan points to Pope John Paul II's statement in the Message on Reconciliation delivered at Assisi, March 12, 1982 that reads:
[St. Francis of Assisi] looked upon creation with the eyes of one who could recognize in it the marvelous work of the hand of God. His voice, his glance, his solicitous care, not only towards men, but also toward animals and nature in general, are a faithful echo of the love with which God in the beginning pronounced his "fait" which had brought them in to existence . . . We too are called to a similar attitude. Created in the image of God, we must make him present among creatures "as intelligent and noble masters and guardians of nature" and "not as heedless exploiters and destroyers."