Blessing of the Animals

Today on cnn.com I stumbled upon this picture accompanied by the caption in bold.

Sabine Bradley carries her two green iguanas, Munchkin and Lola, after they were sprinkled with holy water by Cardinal Roger Mahony at the annual Blessing of the Animals in Los Angeles, California, US.

In class we were talking about how a function of religion is to divide animals and nature from humans, and I felt this blessing ceremony gave an interesting message about how animals are treated. I had never heard about the Blessing of the Animals before, so I did a bit of reading on the subject. For what I've been able to find it seems that several Christian sects and some Jewish practice this ritual. From what I can tell the animals are brought to church and sprinkled with holy water along with the usually readings from the bible or psalms and singing. The general message is one of thanks to god for these animals and all they do for us and also to asking god to protect the animals. This kind of prayer would make since in times when lots of people were heavily dependent on their livestock. Many people believe this ceremony is for St. Francis of Assisi’s love for all creatures, but it is still under dispute. St. Francis' feast day is on Oct. 4 so some groups have the blessing corresponding times, but the ceremony in Los Angeles pictured above does not. It takes place in the spring. Most of the websites that mention the blessing of the animals say something about the relationship between god, people, and animals. One site even had a quote from the bible I think saying that god gives the birds food and shelter and he will do the same for us, so we shouldn't worry about the material but on serving/honoring god because god will provide what we need as he does with the animals. I thought that bible verse was an interesting way to justify worshiping god and not worrying about being poor or hungry.

Anyway, this blessing of the animals makes me wonder if this ceremony is another way to enforce the division between man and animal thus further asserting our human dominance, or if this ceremony brings animals or maybe just domestic animals a step closer to god than we thought. To me sprinkling holy water on animals makes my think of baptism, so I think that this is a way to maybe make animals "more religious" by bringing them closer to god.

Below: Cardinal Roger Mahony splashing holy water on a snake. Mahony has been in charge of this blessing of the animals in Los Angeles for the last 20 years.