Will Cardinal Cupich Accept PETA’s Vegan Advent Candle Offer?

For Immediate Release:
November 21, 2022

Contact:
Robin Goist 202-483-7382

This morning, PETA’s Christian outreach division, PETA LAMBS (“Least Among My Brothers and Sisters” from Matthew 25:40), sent a letter to the city’s archbishop, Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, offering to replace his church’s stock of Advent candles with vegan options free of beeswax, tallow, or any other animal-derived ingredient and light up the community with kindness.

The letter insists that God intended for humans to be caretakers of all his creation, yet many candles contain ingredients derived from the abuse and slaughter of dogs, cats, cows, sheep, and pigs. Rendering companies process carcasses into purified fats like tallow, and for beeswax, it’s common for producers to clip the queen bee’s wings in order to prevent her from leaving the colony and to forcibly inseminate her.

“Genesis 1:29 teaches us that Eden was vegan and that humans flourished in harmony with other animals,” writes PETA Foundation Christian Outreach and Engagement Campaign Coordinator Candice Kelsey. “Thankfully, with the abundance of widely available cruelty-free candle waxes, including soy, coconut, ceresin, and sustainable palm, we can better honor God’s plan.”

Vegan Advent candles are available from CocoSoy, DEMDACO, and Bear Natural Organics. PETA LAMBS—which has also sent letters to cardinals in Boston and Newark, New Jersey—offers an enlightening guide to finding animal-free candles for the Advent season and beyond.

PETA LAMBS opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. Its motto, a variation of PETA’s, is “Animals are not ours. They’re God’s.” For more information, please visit PETALambs.com or follow PETA on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.