Criticism of Hubertusmesse in Berneck

Killing with church blessing: On October 26, a Hubertusmesse with the «Jagdhornbläsern Hubertus St.Gallen» will take place at 10:00 AM. IG Wild beim Wild sharply criticizes the event and those responsible.

On Hubertustag, the memorial day of Saint Hubertus of Liège on November 3, IG Wild beim Wild criticizes such orientations of the church service.

Hubertusmessen, 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 the particularly cruel drives and special hunts where even senile hobby hunters roam the forests in an animal-tormenting manner, chasing, injuring and killing countless wildlife. 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 wildlife of a species are shot because there are more and more of them, do even more need to be shot so 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 wildlife, but more births.

Historically speaking, hunting for population regulation is also not hunting, but terroristic zoocide.

According to the Veterinary Association for Animal Welfare, up to two-thirds of wildlife in driven hunts do not die immediately. 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 tracking.

Numerous scientific studies demonstrate that hunting is not suitable for permanently regulating wildlife populations. Scientists have proven that in hunted wild boar populations, sexual maturity occurs earlier in female animals, which increases the birth rate. Consequently, high hunting pressure results in an increase in the population of the affected wildlife species 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 opponent of hunting. Julia Bielecki, theologian.

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

According to the handed-down legend, Hubertus was born around 655 as the son of a nobleman and died in the year 728. Initially he led a pleasure-seeking life and was a passionate hunter. When one day during a hunt he had tracked a stag and was pursuing it to kill it, the stag suddenly confronted 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 hunting and henceforth led a simple life.

So much for 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 faced 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 to speak 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 contradictory, for God's 5th Commandment states "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 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 mercy, respect for life, and love of neighbor. Practicing Christians concern themselves 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. Any use of them – whether for food production, for clothing, for entertainment, or in animal experiments – and any degradation to commodity, contradicts a peaceful, preserving, and life-respecting attitude.

Hobby hunters live off meat. That's why they are often angry, violent and aggressive. This is not strange, but quite natural. When you make a living from killing, you have no respect for life. You are hostile towards life. And those who are hostile to life cannot enter into prayer, because prayer means reverence for life. And those who are hostile towards God's creatures cannot be very friendly towards God either.