‘What Would Mary Do?’ PETA’s Anti-Bullfighting Plea Hits Archdiocese of Chicago for Christmas
For Immediate Release:
December 15, 2025
Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382
In time for Christmas, PETA is blanketing the intersections and sidewalks surrounding the Holy Name Cathedral—the seat of the Archdiocese of Chicago—with an urgent plea for the Catholic Church: “Please cut ties with bullfighting.” The message features an image of the Virgin Mary lovingly protecting a bull from a matador above the words, “What Would Mary Do?” and is part of PETA’s efforts to urge Chicago-native Pope Leo XIV to denounce the violent and cruel blood sport.
“Mother Mary’s loving and compassionate heart would surely break seeing terrified bulls mercilessly tortured and violently slaughtered in the bull ring,” says PETA Vice President of Legal Advocacy Daniel Paden. “This holy season, PETA is urging Pope Leo to condemn these sadistic spectacles and help bulls live in peace.”
Pope Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, was chosen as PETA’s Person of the Year a decade ago and 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.
Every year, tens of thousands of bulls are slaughtered in bullfighting festivals, many of which are held in honor of Catholic saints. During these events, assailants on horses drive lances 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 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.
PETA’s messages to the Catholic Church can be seen surrounding the Holy Name Cathedral at 735 N. State St. on Chicago’s Near North Side. PETA encourages everyone to urge Pope Leo XIV to end the Church’s support of bullfighting.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours for entertainment or to abuse in any other way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free vegan starter kits to anyone looking to make the switch. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
