ROME – As part of continent-wide protests against low food prices and rising costs, a small delegation of farmers on Sunday led a cow that has become a symbol of the uprising toward St. Peter’s Square for the Pope’s traditional noontime Angelus address. They were turned away before being able to enter.
Convoys of farmers driving their tractors down city streets and around famed landmarks have become a familiar sight in Rome in recent days, part of agricultural protests that have broken out across Europe, including in Spain, Poland, France and Belgium. Named Ercolina II, the cow was led down the Via della Conciliazione, the broad avenue leading to St. Peter’s Square, with the farmers hoping she might receive a blessing form the Pope.
