I Know Dogs Don’t Go To Heaven But…

creepy.

Our confessor, may he rest in peace, explained the situation to us after our beloved 18 year old Persian had to be put down due to failing kidneys- Yes, we will see our beloved friends in heaven. NOT because they have souls, as they do not, but because of LOVE. They were created to love us and we loved them in return. God would never waste love.

If God is Being (and He is), then to make a thing and let it be un-made would be to defeat God.

Somehow I doubt that's possible, to put it mildly.

So animals, and all other things who have been given Life by God, must go on existing somewhere after they leave this world. God's reality is a very large place (as in infinite) and can and does contain all living creatures, past, present and future, within it. So one need not object, as someone once did to me, that there wouldn't be room for all the cats (or whales, or oak trees) ever made. Of course there is. God is infinite.

But the bottom line is: if you can Unmake something that Is, then you can defeat God. But He can't be defeated, and he doesn't Unmake His own creations, not even when they are moral beings and choose to turn against him (as some angels, and humans).

So they necessarily must go on existing (with all due respect and apologies to Aquinas, who is so generally admirable in other matters, but who seems to have missed it here).

Further reading: Romans 8:22-23; Psalm 84: 1-4; Psalm 104: 24, 29-30; Psalm 36: 6; and consider that John 1 says that the Word was made "flesh," which implies a commonality with animals, at least, who while they do not have moral responsible certainly suffer a great deal because of our misuse of that faculty. That the Bible, and the Magisterium, say little about animals only means that animals do not need the spiritual redemption that is the concern of those authorities.

So don't worry. Animals are safe in God's hands.

A very nice woman, who use to go to our Parish, but is now in Jacksonville Florida just wrote a book about this, Susi Pittman, Animals in Heaven?: Catholics Want to Know!…

Patty – "in my father's house there are many mansions". Do mansions have souls?

Once again, this is a moot point. We'll only know when we get there.

Good answer, Paul. The only thing I would add to the discussion, and particularly in response to the issue raised by Patty of souls being necessary to get into heaven, is that animals DO have souls – just not HUMAN souls. They have animal souls, unstained animal souls, which is what God gave them. They're fine as they are because, unlike us, they have committed no sins. Yes, they suffer because of the Fall, but that is our doing, not theirs. I don't think God will hold that against them.

I just hope the guy gets married and has a bunch of kids. If he took the time to make his dog a Christian, he'll probably be a great dad.