Criticism of Hubertus Mass at St. Gallen Cathedral
On September 27, 2025 at 5:00 PM, a Hubertus Mass with the «Hunting Horn Players Weiherweid» is scheduled to take place at St. Gallen Cathedral. IG Wild beim Wild sharply criticizes this event and calls on the church to clearly distance itself from hunting and its glorification.
Hubertus Masses, which are mainly attended and co-organized by militant hobby hunters, contradict all Christian ethics from the perspective of IG Wild beim Wild. Instead of teaching respect for life, they symbolically grant blessing for killing.
«Celebrating a worship service that gives hunters ecclesiastical backing for killing defenseless fellow creatures sends a completely wrong message,» says Julia Bielecki, theologian. «Churches must advocate for the preservation of creation, not for its destruction.»
There are people who shape their daily lives with falsehoods, brutal violence, hatred and deceit. Such beings gladly join hunting associations and hunting horn groups and wallow with like-minded individuals in this collection basin.
As with military signal trumpets, hunting horns are predominantly variants of the natural trumpet with a very limited, primitive and unusual tonal range for the war music of hobby hunters. With such events, one hopes to recruit offspring for the sectarian and violence-ready hunting associations.
Hobby hunters spread unspeakable suffering, terror and misery among both humans and wild animals. Practically everything that is cruel, unnecessary and heartless is promoted by hunting associations, as a court in Bellinzona recently confirmed.
Hobby hunters practice speciesism. Speciesism is comparable to racism and sexism, and that is neither culture nor tradition.
Hunting exacerbates the problem instead of solving it
The IG refers to numerous scientific studies that prove hunting is not suitable for permanently regulating wild populations. Particularly with wild boar, raccoons or foxes, high hunting pressure causes the animals to reach sexual maturity earlier and reproduce faster. «Those who shoot more and more create not less, but more animal cruelty,» says the IG.
Added to this are the massive animal welfare problems: During driven hunts, according to the Veterinary Association for Animal Protection, up to two-thirds of the animals hit do not die immediately. They flee with shattered bones or open wounds and often die agonizingly after days.
Distorted Hubertus Legend
The Hubertus Mass refers to the legend of Saint Hubertus, but misunderstands its core message. After his encounter with the stag bearing the cross, Hubertus ended his hunting and turned to Christ.«The actual message is to live in peace with animals – not to hunt them, wound them, and kill them», states the IG.
Christianity is a religion of mercy and respect for life. Nowhere in the Bible is there any indication that Christ hunted animals. On the contrary: «Thou shalt not kill» applies universally.
Appeal to the Church
The IG Wild beim Wild urgently calls upon church representatives to distance themselves from violence-glorifying Hubertus Masses and to fulfill their responsibility for protecting creation. «Those who bless animals in God's name only to have them senselessly killed afterwards mock the Gospel and become complicit in senseless animal suffering.»
As a hunting horn player, one particularly conducts public relations work at the Hubertus Mass. «We are essentially the mouthpiece of hunting, the communication medium between hunters and the population,» explains hobby hunter Buri-Frank.