Italian Actor Arrested After Plea for an End to Bullfighting at Pope’s General Audience
For Immediate Release:
November 19, 2025
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Today, Italian actor and PETA UK supporter Loredana Cannata was arrested at Pope Leo XIV’s general audience in the Vatican. The star jumped the barrier wearing a t-shirt with the text “Bullfighting is a Sin” and holding a sign with the message “Pope Leo: help end bullfighting.” The action is part of PETA entities’ campaign urging the Pope to denounce bullfighting and cut the Catholic Church’s ties with the violent and cruel blood sport.
“Pope Leo and Christians everywhere can no longer stand by as terrified bulls are mercilessly tortured and violently slaughtered during bullfights every year,” says Cannata. “With some Catholic priests actively supporting and blessing these cruel events, it’s urgent that the Church take action. We urge everyone to join us in calling on Pope Leo to defend all creation and end the Church’s ties to bullfighting.”
Every year, tens of thousands of bulls are slaughtered in bullfighting festivals held in honor of Catholic saints. During these events, an assailant on horseback drives a lance into a bull’s back and neck before others plunge banderillas into his back, inflicting acute pain whenever he turns his head and impairing his range of motion. Eventually, when the bull becomes weak from blood loss, a matador appears and attempts to kill the animal by plunging a sword into his lungs. A knife is used to cut his spinal cord. The bull may be paralyzed but still conscious as his ears or tail are cut off and presented to the matador as a trophy and his body is dragged from the arena.
Pope Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, wrote in his encyclical Laudato Si’, “Every act of cruelty towards any creature is contrary to human dignity.” As far back as the 16th century, Pope Pius V—who has since been canonized—banned bullfighting, which he described as “cruel and base spectacles of the devil and not of man” and contrary to “Christian piety and charity.” The doctrine of the Catholic Church clearly states that humans should not “cause animals to suffer or die needlessly,” yet Catholic priests often officiate at religious ceremonies in bullrings and minister to bullfighters in arena chapels. Some even attack bulls in arenas while dressed in a cassock.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
