Animals in church?

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Recently I went to Confession at a different parish, where the priest allows anyone to sit down next to him or to kneel behind the screen. I chose to sit down and I was a bit shocked to see that he had a small white dog on his lap. It didn’t distract me too much from the sacrament, but I started to wonder if this was common.

After I had finished and was praying, the priest left the confessional and I could hear him walking the dog from the back of the sanctuary, where the confessionals are, all the way down the aisle to an exit at the front of the church near the steps that lead up to the altar. The jingling of the dog’s tags and the sound of its nails scurrying on the tile floor were definitely a distraction, but I also really started to wonder whether this was proper.

Is it wrong to bring a dog into the sanctuary?
 
Not that i know of. I read once that St. Cupertino celebrated mass in front of animals because the farmers were out working. Also in a Caribbean parish i once visited there was a cat that would come for Morning prayer! So unless it is distracting I can’t imagine God’s creatures causing problems.
 
Now, I realize this is off-topic, but I think it’s interesting that our cat will not eat his food at other times unless we bless it. He occasionally had gotten my dear hubby up in the middle of the night to go to the kitchen and bless his food. I know he eats whenever we’re not at home … does he bless his own food? 😉

Kitty learned to sit while we bless our meals. Then he gets 1 teaspoon of whatever protein we are eating in his food bowl.

We call him our catholic kitty, he loves fish on Fridays! I suspect if he appeared in church, he’d probably ask to be the church cat and mouser!
 
mcmitton said:
Now, I realize this is off-topic, but I think it’s interesting that our cat will not eat his food at other times unless we bless it. He occasionally had gotten my dear hubby up in the middle of the night to go to the kitchen and bless his food. I know he eats whenever we’re not at home … does he bless his own food? 😉 Kitty learned to sit while we bless our meals. Then he gets 1 teaspoon of whatever protein we are eating in his food bowl. We call him our catholic kitty, he loves fish on Fridays! I suspect if he appeared in church, he’d probably ask to be the church cat and mouser!
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That’s awesome! What a good cat…
 
One church I visit, it is well known the priest owns a large dog and a bird (a parrot I think or similar). But I’ve never seen them in the church itself but have seen pictures of them on the website where the dog is on the leash during the annual blessing of the animals on the feast of St Francis of Assisi and the bird is in some cage type thing. There is a sign by the church / shrine gift shop mentioning the presence of a large dog too.

I’ve never seen anyone bring personal pets to church for any reason. But I’ve seen my fair share of various young dogs (of large dog breeds mainly) that lead the blind, assist the disabled or being trained for those tasks.
 
On most of my mission trips to Tanzania, animals are a regular part of the offertory ( it is a cash poor economy there)

In fact, my very first Mass there was in the Cathedral with the bishop celebrating. One of the animals brought forth at offertory was a rooster.

I crowed right at the elevation of the Host 🙂

I also remember altar boys hog tying a goat after it tried to escape down the main aisle. 😛
 
In deference to those parishioners who are allergic to animal dander and for other sanitary reasons I think it would be wise to leave the animals outside, even the priest’s pet. The only animals I have seen in church have been dogs in training for disabled human assistance.
 
Many years ago when I was a Methodist a dog wondered into our church on a very hot August Sunday morning… The church had a tile floor, that was always cooler then the ambient air… The dog (German Shepherd) took a front, center aisle spot and laid down… The pastor noted the dog’s presents and continued on with the service stating that the dog came in to get cool and be refreshed in God’s house.
 
Bob_Aliano said:
In deference to those parishioners who are allergic to animal dander and for other sanitary reasons I think it would be wise to leave the animals outside, even the priest’s pet. The only animals I have seen in church have been dogs in training for disabled human assistance.
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Of course you know that we only have allergies because our environments were too clean when we were kids.😉

I think animals are fine (in moderation and when appropriate): you don’t want the sacristan’s labrador on the altar during mass for instance, and you don’t want the altarboys’ hamsters escaping during benediction either!

But if the priest has a dog, and it follows him round outside of liturgy, then I’d say that’s fine.

I personally think there should be more motorbikes in church;)
 
It’s also possible that the dog is not the priest’s at all but just wandered into the church at the beginning of confessions. He may have been caring for the dog until he had opportunity to find the owner.

We had a dog in our school’s front office one day while we tried to locate the owner. We figured it was safer for the dog and our families this way.

Gertie
 
In our Parish we have a dog who attends Mass every morning – of course, he’s a “seeing eye” dog and takes care of his blind pwmer – so I’m quite used to seeing a dog in Church at Mass.
 
Thanks for the replies. I think this was probably an instance of my own scrupulosity projecting itself onto the priest, but just wanted to make sure there wasn’t a clear provision against something like this in Canon Law. 🤓
 
My personal opinion, depends upon where the dog has access to within the Church building. I don’t think I’d mind the dog in the confessional on the priest’s lap, or being led back to his living quarters and such. But our former parish, one of the priests had a dog and he kept it in the cry room whenever he was celebrating mass. If my child had been younger and we had to use the cry room for any purpose, I would personally object to the dog being kept in the cry room. Not only for my child’s safety, but for the dog’s safety as well because some children do not know how to handle being around a pet and can become quite aggressive with animals.
 
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