Security personnel swiftly removed a protester after PETA activists disrupted the convoy of Pope Francis, just before the Immaculate Conception celebration prayer, to protest against bullfighting in Rome, Italy, on December 8, 2024. — Reuters

On Sunday, four animal activists were apprehended in Rome after they threw themselves in front of a car carrying Pope Francis, shouting 'bullfighting is a sin', according to the animal rights group PETA. Video footage provided by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals showed three women leaping over a barricade and kneeling in the path of the approaching white Fiat carrying the pope, holding aloft protest signs. Security forces promptly removed the women, while another woman behind the barricade held a similar sign reading 'bullfighting is a sin' in Spanish.

The incident took place as Pope Francis, 87, was en route to Rome's Spanish Steps to bless a nearby statue of the Virgin Mary on the Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception. In a statement, PETA revealed that the action was part of a campaign urging the Pope to cut ties between the Catholic Church and bullfighting and to condemn this abhorrent blood sport. Most recently, anti-bullfighting activists demonstrated in front of the pope's vehicle during a visit to Luxembourg in September, and activists interrupted a church service in Rome presided over by Francis to protest the practice.

Mimi Bekhechi, PETA's vice-president for Europe, described it as a 'disgrace' that the Church continued to support the 'killing and mutilation of bulls'. 'PETA calls on Pope Francis to denounce these shameful spectacles and make it clear once and for all that no person of good will can support bullfighting,' she said. The group noted that bullfights, where the bull is tormented and repeatedly stabbed before being killed, are often held in honor of Catholic saints, including the Virgin Mary, with priests performing religious rites during bullfights. PETA also pointed out that Francis wrote in his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si, a papal letter sent to all bishops, that mistreating animals was 'contrary to human dignity'.

Bullfighting is practiced in Spain, France, Portugal, Venezuela, Mexico, Peru, and Ecuador. Colombia banned the bloody sport in May, while a bill in France to prohibit children under 16 from attending failed to pass the upper house of parliament last month.

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