SIENA, Italy — The colorful tickets bearing images of an elephant and giraffes behind the Colosseum along with the two iconic tigers of an Italian circus promised an afternoon’s respite from hardship, a gift from the Vatican to thousands of poor people.

But the announcement on Wednesday that Pope Francis’ charity office was planning to take 2,100 homeless and poor people to the circus, along with refugees and prisoners, did not go down well with animal rights activists.

Carla Rocchi, the chairwoman of Italy’s Animal Protection League, criticized the plan to attend the Thursday show, pointing to what she called the “unnatural condition of detention and exploitation, if not mistreatment,” of circus animals.

“The vast majority of people and of the faithful believe that love for animals should not be sacrificed to love for the others,” Ms. Rocchi said in a statement.