Do Catholics Believe That Animals Have Souls Francis

Humans have kept animals around for centuries. At first it was for hunting purposes, pest control, and general working tasks. It did not have long, nevertheless, for animals to starting time beingness bred and kept as companions. According to a 2015–2016 American Pet Products Association (APPA) survey, around 79.vii million households in America are habitation to a pet. Information technology is clear animals hold a special place in our hearts. So when they die, every bit with our loved ones of the human diversity, of course we want to know what becomes of them. Where do they fit into the world God has created?

Pope Pius IX is among the first of the popes to fully address the issue of animals going to heaven, though not favorably. He said that heaven is a identify reserved for those with souls and a conscience, which animals don't accept. He is even reported to accept opposed the founding of an animate being anticruelty society in Rome in the 19th century "on the ground that to grant permission would imply that human beings have duties to the lower creatures," says Peter Singer, an Australian philosopher who writes about animal rights.

Since Pius IX, nevertheless, popes have had differing views on the status and treatment of animals. Pope Paul Half-dozen is reported to have consoled a boy whose pet dog had died, saying, "One day nosotros will meet our pets in the eternity of Christ." (In 2015, through a series of journalistic mishaps, that quote was falsely attributed to Pope Francis.)

In a 1990 papal audience, Pope John Paul II proclaimed that "the animals possess a soul and men must love and feel solidarity with our smaller brethren." He added that animals are the "fruit of the creative action of the Holy Spirit and merit respect" and that they are "as virtually to God as men are." Though Pope John Paul 2 never made any claims most heaven, he enforces the thought that all animals are God's cosmos.

In a 2002 interview with German journalist Peter Seewald, Pope Bridegroom Xvi, and then Central Joseph Ratzinger, discussed his love of animals and echoed an idea establish in Genesis and restated in the Canon of the Cosmic Church: Animals are indeed God'south creation and therefore should be respected. He condemned factory farming, proverb the commodification of animals is a sign that something is broken in the relationship between the creator and creation.

Pope Francis, whose papal name refers to the saint who famously welcomed animals equally beau creatures of God, prays in his encyclical on the environment, "Teach us to discover the worth of each matter, to exist filled with awe and contemplation, to recognize that we are greatly united with every creature as we journeying towards [God's] infinite light."

While we may never find out in this life whether our beloved pets will stop upwardly in sky, it is sure that animals are our fellow creatures of God. As such, the love and dignity we show them is one way we can heed Pope Francis' call to treat creation.

This article appears in the June 2016 consequence of U.S. Catholic (Vol. 81, No. vi, page 49 ).

Image: Flickr cc via Elsamuko