Oct16
Blessed Are the Peacemakers
Posted at 10:52 AM | Permalink
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Comments (15)
As a clarion call to people of faith, a priest recently bestowed a blessing upon sheep who were bound for live export aboard a cargo ship in Fremantle, Western Australia. In a public display of solidarity, the priest blessed the sheep with holy water before they were loaded onto the cargo ship Mayora.
Father Mostowik is the director of missionaries for the Sacred Heart Justice and Peace Centre and is certainly no stranger to social justice. Thankfully, his ethics include the understanding that compassion must reach to all beings, not just the talking two-legged ones. His powerful message, while unspoken, was made loud and clear. It is a signal to us believin' folk of various faiths that our duty of compassion should extend to all of God's creatures.
While it's wonderful that Father Mostowik is using what he believes is right to take action in his own way, we here at PETA know that these animals need a heck of a lot more than a kind blessing. These animals need action, kindness, and support.
The slave ships that drag these animals across the globe are an ugly truth that usually goes unseen. Crammed together with hardly any room to move, some animals often don't survive the journey. Australian sheep are kicked, beaten, and dragged off boats by their ears and legs; they are often left to suffer and sometimes die in barren feedlots. They are bound up and thrown into the trunks of cars, and they are slaughtered in prolonged and cruel ways that are illegal in the U.S., Europe, and Australia. A PETA investigation in 2006 revealed horrible cruelty in this industry. You can watch the video here.
We hope Father Mostowik has the ear of quite a few people who've yet to hear just how horribly these animals are abused.
The fact that more and more religious leaders are taking aim to relieve the suffering of animals indicates an exciting shift in public consciousness. However, these calls to action merely point the way. In order to alleviate the suffering of millions of animals who are bound for our dinner plates, archaic recreation, or clothing, the responsibility to act falls on every one of us cruelty-free peeps no matter what holidays we celebrate.
Posted by Missy Lane
TAGGED:
wool vegetarian sheep father mostowik blessing
Comments
Hang On ! I thought Peta said live exports had been stopped. Have I missed something ?
Posted by: keith | October 16, 2008 12:16 PM
my personal thanks and admiration for Father Mostowik! it is really time for a wake up call in the different religious camps! animal protection should be one of the first concerns of religious people because in this way we respect the Creator of every living being! humans have no power of creation - they have just a choice between killing or not killing! so when we want to practice a religion without fearing GOD and His work we are still on the way to Him but we have not reached Him yet! real wisdom avoids violence in every way and in our modern civilization we don't need to kill animals because we have everything we need for our lifes! the horror these poor animals in the transporter have to go through is against human dignity and completely unnecessary! just someone wants to make money: this is ruthless and coward! backminded souls are without mercy towards other creatures but humanity has to look forward on their way and one of the most important aims in human evolution is mercy towards every form of life! so may all the religions' leaders wake up from their thousand years' sleeping - open your eyes and your hearts and see the beauty of all living creatures!
Posted by: animalfriend | October 16, 2008 12:41 PM
I'm glad he is making a diffrence! GO VEGGIE!
Posted by: SASHA | October 16, 2008 01:33 PM
If they survive the long harrowing journey, their reward is to be brutally slaughtered in the Middle East. Money talks and the Australian government (owned by big business) shrugs its shoulders and looks the other way—moral cowardice, plain and simple.
Posted by: Mike Quinoa | October 16, 2008 02:31 PM
That is a powerful image.
God's creatures tormented in the name of greed
I only wish that God could help them.
But like the saying goes, that's why God made us.
Posted by: kelly | October 17, 2008 08:19 AM
One of my favorite songs ("Biko" by Peter Gabriel) talks about a single candle catching light and the wind blowing the flame higher and higher. Father Mostowik was the single candle that day, but I hope his flame catches on the wind and grows. As people see what he did that day, perhaps they will show up and protest the treatent of these poor animals.
Posted by: Kelley | October 17, 2008 10:33 AM
So sad and SOOOOOOOOO unnecessary! If they are going to kill the poor creatures, can they at least do it in a more humane way in Australia and export the meat? Why all this suffering? to make a few more cents on a pound of meat? I am so sickened by this. God will judge us by the way we treat the least among us.
Posted by: NT | October 17, 2008 11:04 PM
This picture at Fremantle is near to where I live. I am horrified that this still goes on. No, it has not been banned.
It's all well and good to bless the sheep but that is not going to stop any of the torment they will endure.
I thought I was hardened to all the PeTA videos but the Live Export one had me in tears.
I am currently writing letters to the people that control this because it has got to stop.
Posted by: Finn | October 17, 2008 11:21 PM
the video is sickening, the morons who kill these helpless animals are indeed very psychotic, where do these "men" come from?--no pity at all for the helpless--what a world--
Posted by: mary nicoletti | October 18, 2008 07:07 PM
how could a blessing by any priest or religious person possibly help these innocent creatures from being brutally abused and horribly killed by sadistic godless men?--
Posted by: nikki panagotacos | October 18, 2008 07:23 PM
Moral cowardice. The sheep are still going to suffer brutal abuse, sadistic torture and unthinkable torment at the hands of their inhumane oppressors.
Posted by: vegancoin | October 20, 2008 02:49 PM
Thanks Missy,
It's about time the Church gets a hold of this and they better splash some of that HOLY WATER on their hearts and their eyeballs. If you read the Bible and have any kind of discerning abilities, then you gotta be able to figure out this is WRONG. The Austrailians arn't Muslims, they gotta know that those sheep are to be slaughtered to a God that doesn't need them or disires this to be done. Sacriligious fools. What kind of a God would require that. Bloodthirsty fools. Is it any wonder their are so many unbelievers amonst us.
We have got to take back the Church. It is profoundly misrepresented, to fit the needs of power hungery masogonist fools and the women who go along with it. God does require animal sacrifices and never did. It is a misrepresentation, a distortion and a lie from men who are blinded by their own self interest, greed, gluttony and pure stupidity.
Oh Lord, how I loath those fools though I stand amonst them. Oh Lord, how I look forward to the day when you put your HEAVENLY mirror in their face and reveal their abominations. There is no excuse for this. No excuse for FACTORY FARMING, or a government that supports useless and cruel experimentation. I believe not.
Dear God I know it is wrong to hate but my heart curses them to the END OF HELL.
Dear God , I pray that you sink their ships and disolve their goverments. I pray that you stand as a witness against their cruel misdeeds. That you look upon the earth with your RIGHTOUSNESS and show the fools who has a right to spill BLOOD and who does not. I pray that you cast them out and lift your veil of protection from them. Those who exult themselves above the true knowledge of the God of Love and Mercy and think and deceive themselves into to believing they have a right to, not only to eat these precious beings, whom you have commanded us not to touch, but to torture them as well.
Posted by: Elijah | October 20, 2008 03:21 PM
I certainly agree with Mike, and if I were an Australian I would be ashamed of the government--and also the people who raise the sheep and allow this to happen--are they that money hungry that they would agree to these atrocities?hard to believe--such corruption
Posted by: mary grace | October 20, 2008 11:36 PM
this torture of animals from other countrys is aweful. what about local alternatives NYS has a strong sheep and wool industry and none of this cruelty have i witnessed here. I myself spin my own wool yarn and knit my own clothing from locally produced wool that is from happy sheep who spend their entire lives comfortable. I even know the sheep that my wool comes from by name and that is special to me and i always thank her for her wool every year, when she is shorn in spring to prepare for summer weather.
Posted by: melissa | October 21, 2008 09:18 PM
It appears that Elijah has made a gramatical error. The post clearly is opposed to sacrificing sheep (how rediculous) but in the second paragraph, second sentence failed to attach the 'nt to does. In other words God does not require animal sacrifices and never did. And you don't have to speak Greek to figure that out either duh!
Posted by: Saucy | October 22, 2008 03:02 PM