Criticism of Hubertus Mass in Bellach

Killing with ecclesiastical blessing: On November 9th, a Hubertus Mass with the «Diana Jagdhornisten Burgdorf» takes place. IG Wild beim Wild sharply criticizes the event and those responsible.

On St. Hubertus Day, the memorial day of Saint Hubertus of Liège on November 3rd, IG Wild beim Wild criticizes such orientations of religious services.

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

They often mark the beginning of particularly cruel driven hunts and special hunts where even senile hobby hunters roam the forests in acts of animal cruelty, chasing, injuring and killing countless wild animals. IG Wild beim Wild therefore appeals to church representatives to distance themselves in future from the violence-glorifying and sectarian masses.

If more and more wild animals of a species are shot because there are more and more of them, do even more need to 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 at all, but terroristic zoocide.

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

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

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 opponent of hunting. Julia Bielecki, Theologian.

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

According to the transmitted 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 one day while hunting he had tracked a stag and pursued it to kill it, the stag suddenly turned to face him. Between its antlers a cross shone forth and in the form of the stag, Christ spoke to him: "Hubertus, why do you hunt me?" Hubertus dismounted and knelt before the stag. From that moment on, Hubertus ended his hunting and thereafter led a simple life.

So much for the legend. After his encounter 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 faced with a choice: either he kills the animal – then he also kills Christ – or he does not do this and confesses to Christ. Or spoken with the words from Matthew 25:40: »What you have done to one of the least of my brothers, you have done to 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 absurd, for God's 5th commandment reads »Thou shalt 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 annually. Instead of making Saint Hubertus the patron saint of animals, the church appointed him 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 hunters, but the protectors and friends of animals. As it says so beautifully in Mark 16:15: »Go out into the whole world and preach the gospel to all creatures.« This surely 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 of humans, nature, and animals. The animals are "our brothers and sisters", our neighbors. Every use of them – whether for food production, clothing, entertainment, or in animal experiments – and every degradation to commodity contradicts a peaceful, preserving, and life-respecting attitude.

Hobby hunters live on meat. Therefore they are often angry, violent, and aggressive. This is not strange, but quite natural. When one lives by 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.