I don't normally put this sort of stuff up at RPCA, but to to say I was
appalled is an understatement. I thought that the Catholic Church showed
compassion to all living creatures. Please help.

Helen M

For immediate release
Contact: Neighborhood Cats, Inc.
212-662-5761
headcat@...

What Happened to the "Cat" in Catholic?

(June 7, 2005) Newly elected Pope Benedict XVI's well-known love of
stray
cats apparently is not shared by the Dominican Nuns of the Corpus
Christi
Monastery in the Bronx, New York. The Mother Superior has ordered the
removal of seven feral cats who are almost all neutered, rabies
vaccinated
and have lived on the monastery's five acres for the past 8 years. In a
decision backed by the Archdiocese of NY, the plan is to first try to
force
the cats to leave by withholding all food and starving them. Then if
they
don't go on their own, the resident Sisters will trap them and hand them
over to the city. Shelter workers would be forced to euthanize the cats
because they are feral and unadoptable and have nowhere else to be
placed.

The Vicar of the Religious Office for the Archdiocese, Sister Helen C.,
stated, "my compassion does not extend to these animals" and "they will
be
removed eventually, one way or another."

"The plan is not only cruel for depriving these cats of their long-time
home and causing their suffering and likely deaths, it is ineffective
feral
cat population control," said Bryan Kortis, Executive Director of
Neighborhood Cats, a leading feral cat organization and a member of the
Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals. "Maintaining neutered feral
colonies,
using a method known as Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), is the only proven way
to
reduce feral numbers in the long term. Otherwise, new unneutered cats
will
simply replace the ones removed and the cycle of suffering and killing
will
go on indefinitely."

Over the past eight years, at their own expense, volunteers have removed
nine cats from the grounds of the monastery and placed them in homes.
The
cats too wild to be adopted were neutered and returned, stopping their
reproduction, and were then fed by the nuns. Now, however, the nuns and
the
Archdiocese refuse to even meet with animal advocates to discuss the
situation.

To protest this heartless and ill-guided assault on the cats, please
contact the Corpus Christi Monastery and the Archdiocese of NY by phone,
email or fax (see below.) Let them know we expect more from our
religious
leaders than pointless cruelty towards innocent animals:

Corpus Christi Monastery
phone: 718-328-6996
fax: 718-328-1974
email: nunsop.bronx2@...

Archdiocese of NY
phone: 212-371-1000 (ask for Public Relations or the Vicar of the
Religious Office)
fax: 212-826-6020
email: contactus@...

Act now! The cats have not been fed for five days and counting!!

From www.nunsopbronx.homestead.com:
"The DOMINICAN NUNS of Corpus Christi Monastery, Bronx, New York, are a
monastic community dedicated to a life of prayer and penance for the
preaching mission of the Dominican Order and for the salvation of
souls."

For more on Trap-Neuter-Return: www.neighborhoodcats.org