Italy’s animal rights groups are launching a protest, with a petition drive to get Pope Benedict XVI to stop wearing fur during Vatican ceremonies.
“We just want to ask him in a message of love and peace to give a strong signal towards the protection of animals and the environment through a small but very significant personal sacrifice,” Lorenze Croce, chairman of the Italian Association for the Defence of Animals and the Environment, told an Italian news agency.
Benedict has taken to wearing a number of traditional religious garments, including a small red velvet cape with a white ermine border, which he wears in winter along with a hat the same color, says AFP.
Read David Gibson’s take on papal vestments here.
