Animal Lovers Rejoice: Pope Suggests Pets Go to Heaven

Animal welfare groups say it's hard to imagine heaven without animals

Editor’s note: Widely circulated reports that Pope Francis said dogs could go to heaven were incorrect. Instead he said, "Holy Scripture teaches us that the fulfillment of this wonderful design also affects everything around us,” which an Italian newspaper interpreted to mean animals could go to heaven. Another quote attributed to Francis was actually made by Pope Paul VI while comforting a distraught boy whose dog had died.
 

Pope Francis had an early Christmas president for dogs, and animal lovers everywhere: A chance at heaven for pooches and another creatures.

During a recent public appearance, while trying to console a boy whose dog had died, Francis said, according to Italian news sources, “One day, we will see our animals again in the eternity of Christ. Paradise is open to all of God’s creatures.”

His comments were greeted with enthusiasm by animal welfare groups.

“It confirms what many of us have believed and hoped to be true for a long time,” said Christine Gutleban, director of the faith outreach program for The Humane Society of the United States. “I think it’s hard for many of us to imagine heaven without God’s creatures.”

Some religious observers have noted that the pope made the comment casually and so it was unclear what implications it would have.

Gutleban said her organization was waiting confirmation from the Vatican, but thought the comment was very much in line with Christian teachings about compassion toward animals.

The pope's predecessors have offered varying views. Though traditional Catholic teaching held that animals did not have souls, Pope John Paul II implied that they did. Pope Benedict spoke out against factory farming.

The president of the Catholic League, Bill Donohue, said as an animal lover, he welcomed the comment. In the absence of a catechism teaching on subject, popes are free to their own ideas, he said. Whether animals can get to heaven is a matter of conjecture, he said.

"But it’s Christmastime so let’s be cheery and assume that’s the case," he said.

That said, he planned to enjoy a prime rib at the Catholic League's Christmas party.

The American Kennel Club applauded Pope Francis for reminding the world that dogs deserved love, care and respect.

“Few things in life are more powerful than the human-canine bond, and we firmly believe that all dogs are worthy of an eternity of affection and happiness,” it said in a statement.

Other groups used the opportunity to draw attention to American farming methods.

“If indeed (Benedict) said this, that animals have a place in heaven, then I think it’s a clear that animals mean a great deal to God," Gutleban said. "And we really need to be serious about how we treat them, certainly in industrial systems like factory farming, for example."

People for the Ethical Treatment or PETA said in a statement that it hoped Christians would remember that animals raised and killed for food endure hell on earth. The most loving thing people could do toward God’s creatures was not to eat them, said the group, which has a new website directed at Christians, Jesus People for Animals.

Sarah Withrow King, the director of PETA’s Christian outreach and engagement, said that the group was contacted almost immediately by supporters who were thrilled by the pope’s statement.

She said she hoped it would change people’s treatment of animals.

“I say that a world on earth as it is in heaven is a vegan world,” she said.

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