Criticism of Hubertus Mass in Gossau

Killing with ecclesiastical blessing: On November 3rd, a Hubertus Mass will take place at 10:30 AM with the hunting horn players Weiherweid St. Gallen and hunting horn players Eschenberg, Winterthur, in the Andreaskirche Gossau. IG Wild beim Wild sharply criticizes the event and those responsible.

On St. Hubertus Day, the commemoration day of Saint Hubertus of Liège on November 3rd, IG Wild beim Wild criticizes such orientations of the worship service.

Hubertus Masses, which are primarily co-organized and attended by hobby hunters, are incompatible with the Christian ethic of respect for life.

They often form the prelude to particularly cruel drive hunts and special hunts where even senile hobby hunters move through the forests in an animal-torturing manner, chasing, injuring and killing countless wild animals. IG Wild beim Wild therefore appeals to church representatives to distance themselves in future from these violence-glorifying and sectarian masses.

If more and more wild animals of a species are shot because there are more and more of them, must even more be shot so that there will be fewer?

There is no comprehensible reason for recreational hunting, as it is not suitable for permanently regulating populations. Hunting does not mean fewer wild animals, but more births.

Historically speaking, hunting for population control is not hunting either, but terroristic zoocide.

According to the Veterinary Association for Animal Protection, up to two-thirds of wild animals do not die immediately during drive hunts. With shattered bones and protruding entrails, the animals flee, suffer from their injuries often for days and die in agony if they are not found during the so-called tracking search.

Numerous scientific studies prove that hunting is not suitable for permanently regulating wildlife populations. Scientists have demonstrated that in hunted wild boar populations, sexual maturity occurs earlier in female animals, which increases the birth rate. Accordingly, high hunting pressure causes the population of the respective wildlife species to increase in that area.

Celebrating a religious service that gives hunters symbolic blessing for the systematic killing of defenseless fellow creatures sends a completely wrong signal. Churches must advocate for the preservation of creation, not for its destruction. The Hubertus Mass also fails to recognize that Saint Hubertus transformed from a hunter into a convinced hunting opponent. Julia Bielecki, Theologian.

The legend of Hubertus and the cross-bearing stag is known from literature and visual arts.

According to the traditional legend, Hubertus was born around 655 as the son of a nobleman and died in 728. Initially, he led a pleasure-seeking life and was a passionate hunter. When he had tracked down a stag while hunting one day and was pursuing it to kill it, the stag suddenly turned to face him. A cross shone between its antlers and in the form of the stag, Christ spoke to him: "Hubertus, why do you hunt me?" Hubertus dismounted from his horse and knelt before the stag. From that moment on, Hubertus ended his hunting and henceforth led a simple life.

So goes the legend. After his experience with the stag, Hubertus thus stopped hunting and became a serious Christian. For true Christianity and hunting simply do not go together. In his encounter with the stag, he was confronted with a choice: either he kills the animal – then he also kills Christ – or he does not do this and professes his faith in Christ. Or spoken in the words from Matthew 25:40: »Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me«.

It is written nowhere that Jesus Christ, whom both denominations worship as the Son of God, ever hunted animals. That would also be very contradictory, for God's 5th Commandment states »You shall not kill«. But every hunt is connected with killing.

Despite all this, the so-called Hubertus hunts as well as Hubertus Masses take place in churches every year. Instead of making Saint Hubertus the patron saint of animals, the Church appointed him as the patron of wildlife killers.

The meaning of the Hubertus legend is surely this: that humans should live in harmony and peace with nature and animals. They should not be the hunter, but the protector and friend of animals. As it says so beautifully in Mark 16:15: »Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creatures.« This certainly does not mean hunting.

True Christianity is a religion of ethics that advocates for compassion, respect for life, and love of neighbor. Practicing Christians engage with the question of how these fundamental values can be implemented globally and formulate – biblically grounded and theologically founded – livable ethical guidelines for peaceful coexistence between humans, nature, and animals. The animals are "our brothers and sisters", our neighbors. Any use of them – whether for food production, clothing, entertainment, or in animal experiments – and any degradation to commodities contradicts a peaceful, preserving, and life-respecting attitude.

Hobby hunters live from flesh. Therefore, they are often angry, violent, and aggressive. This is not strange, but quite natural. When one lives from killing, one has no respect for life. One is hostile toward life. And whoever is hostile to life cannot enter into prayer, for prayer means reverence for life. And whoever is hostile toward God's creatures cannot be very friendly toward God either.