{"id":32743,"date":"2016-10-07T13:58:57","date_gmt":"2016-10-07T17:58:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/?p=32743"},"modified":"2016-10-07T13:58:57","modified_gmt":"2016-10-07T17:58:57","slug":"blessing-of-the-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2016\/10\/07\/blessing-of-the-animals\/32743\/","title":{"rendered":"Blessing of the Animals"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week many churches around the country celebrated the Feast of St. Francis (October 4), a day that recalls the life of the 13th century saint revered for his devotion to every part of creation, especially animals. In his honor, faith communities marked the day with a blessing of pets and animals. At the Franciscan Monastery in Washington, DC we spoke about St. Francis as protector and friend of animals with Father Jim Gardiner and with Catholic historian Father Michael Cusato.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAll of nature spoke to Francis,\u201d says Fr James Gardiner of the Franciscan Monastery in Washington, DC. \u201cThe more we learn to reverence all of creation, we might learn to reverence and cherish one another better\u2026 I think Francis would approve.\u201d More →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":32758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6569],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-videocast","topics-belief-and-practice","faith-catholic"],"yoast_head":"\nBlessing of the Animals | October 7, 2016 | Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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