Animals (life after death) have souls or not?

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FMX500

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Catholic answers only please, I want to know what my Church teaches on the matter, that’s the whole purpose of this thread.

I put this question by a monk some months ago but he said he did not have the answer. Please help me with a conclusion since I have found absolutely no reference in the Catechism regarding the matter.
 
In the pre-V2 Catholic Church we were taught that all living things have a soul but only man has an immortal soul.
 
I “want” them to have an eternal soul because God made them and I get / got so much enjoyment from our reciprocal animal husbandry relationship :).

And, pets are rarely so disturbed, rude or egotistical as to give you the middle paw when they are asked to do something. And, pets tend to love unconditionally (which is so rare a find in any relationship).
 
Whether animals have souls or not is immaterial IMO. God will create a new heaven and a new earth. Jesus knows how much our pets mean to us. He gave them to us for our enjoyment and to spice up our lives, make them rich. I fail to see why Jesus couldn’t just bring every one of them back for us in paradise. It’s hard to imagine the Lord making a new earth without animals? Do my animals have souls? Heck yeah! :)👍
 
Barbkw said:
I “want” them to have an eternal soul because God made them and **I get / got so much enjoyment from our reciprocal animal husbandry relationship **:).

And, pets are rarely so disturbed, rude or egotistical as to give you the middle paw when they are asked to do something. And, pets tend to love unconditionally (which is so rare a find in any relationship).
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I can’t agree with you anymore than to say that your statement here is like a screen shot of the thoughts in my mind regarding pets too. ❤️
 
gurneyhalleck1 said:
God will create a new heaven and a new earth. Jesus knows how much our pets mean to us. He gave them to us for our enjoyment and to spice up our lives, make them rich. I fail to see why Jesus couldn’t just bring every one of them back for us in paradise. It’s hard to imagine the Lord making a new earth without animals? Do my animals have souls? Heck yeah! :)👍
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Whether animals have souls or not is immaterial IMO.
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You may think so but, you know how us Catholics believe that saints can “communicate” with us? Praying to saints I mean, my point is do our pets in any simular way know what is going on in our lives even after they are dead?
 
snip, snip, snip gain - from Michelle Arnolds post in the given link.
Explain to your children that heaven will have all that is needed for our perfect happiness.
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This is reassuring enough.
If they need their pet with them in heaven in order to be perfectly happy, their pet will be there.
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As adults we realize that God alone suffices for perfect happiness; but we also know that God, in his great love for us, gives us more than our mere necessities and that his love is reflected to us in his creation. It may be that our animal friends’ presence in the next life will be God’s gift to us.
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This should bring some peace to the hearts of those who have lost close ones.

But I wanted to have the impression that there is still some experience being had by my passed dog.
 
Honestly, I too would like a good answer to this question…
Not the basic answer of what the Church teaches, but WHY the church believes this.
Not to sound extreeeemely blasphemous, which I will, but the whole belief system here seems very… egotistical. People have always believed their the center of the earth, heck, so much to the point that the universe spins around us.

So, people are the smartest things ever, God created us in his image, we’re the only thing God reeeaaaally cares about on this planet, yada yada yada.
Naturally, animals don’t have immortal, lasting souls because they’re just… Animals.
This seems eeaaasily passable a few hundred, or a thousand, years ago… But what about now? Now that we have a grasp on how intelligent animals are? Elephants, pigs, dolphins, varieties of primates… All are extremely intelligent.

And even our pets, dogs, cat… They’re not all the same, mindless, instinct driven creatures.
They have distinct personalities. Even some small animals, that we deem meaningless nuisances, such as rats, have distinct, individual, personalities.

You know, somehow I can’t hear that, say, elephants mourn, and believe that they’re just going to poof out of existence. It all feels like a very ignorant and primitive way to think. We have NO IDEA if animals go to heaven or not, and the argument for them not going to heaven just isn’t convincing. Mainly based on the types of people making this argument.

“They do not have the intelligence which allows them to choose either God’s will or their own will.”

Uh huuuuh… You know, to feels less like a matter of intelligence, and more like a matter of, say… Original sin and all that has no impact on an animal.

So far as I can tell, all the arguments that animals don’t go to heaven seem like little fairytales to make human beings feel more important. I’m not saying we AREN’T more important, but we do seem to think we’re all that matters. Even though God created everything eeeelse on this planet and in the universe, so by that logic they should matter too…

Eh. I don’t want to hear THEORIES, I want to hear what the church LEGITIMATELY says on the matter. And if the church legitimately says NOTHING on the matter? Then hey, nobody knows if they do or not. End of story. 🤷

(Sorry, OP, but consider my post just another person asking your same question…)
 
Hi,
Father Manion ((I think. My memory is not perfect here.)) from OSV, Our Sunday Visitor, once answered this question. He said, there that there is nothing that says they will exist later, but also there is nothing that says they will not exist in the life to come.
Why Father Manion is important, is, theology is one of his jobs.
OSV is a Catholic Teaching magazine, that seems to be an outreach of those folks who provide the service of envelopes, for Catholics.
I hope this helps.
 
curtish1947 said:
Hi,
Father Manion ((I think. My memory is not perfect here.)) from OSV, Our Sunday Visitor, once answered this question. He said, there that there is nothing that says they will exist later, but also there is nothing that says they will not exist in the life to come.
Why Father Manion is important, is, theology is one of his jobs.
OSV is a Catholic Teaching magazine, that seems to be an outreach of those folks who provide the service of envelopes, for Catholics.
I hope this helps.
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It doesn’t help, it just makes it more uncertain.

XD
 
Suni_Moon said:
(Sorry, OP, but consider my post just another person asking your same question…)
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Suni Moon,

Think about this; if we need intelligence to know and understand God… then, doesn’t that then prove that you need imagination to… know Him?

Imagination… intellegence, they are the same thing.

I think you will get dragged through the coals on this thread… for your statement on how the Chruch treats the topic and many other matters.
 
Read the Tanakh. There are many passages likening souls of man and beast. I can’t recall them offhand, but they’re there. It seems to me that if God makes something than He maked it to last. How else would the impermanent bring Him glory?
 
John_Carlton said:
Read the Tanakh. There are many passages likening souls of man and beast. I can’t recall them offhand, but they’re there. It seems to me that if God makes something than He maked it to last.
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How else would the impermanent bring Him glory?
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But there are so many of those impermanent creatures, think about all the birds you see and the ants. There are just so many, maybe it doesn’t matter to him, why else would they have to be in such great number?
 
InspiritCarol said:
Good answers here:
Pets in Heaven? ewtn
ewtn.com/expert/answers/pets_in_heaven.htm

Official Apologist Michelle Arnold answers here:
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=14030

Heaven is beyond our comprehension. We must have faith. Sometimes, there really is just *no *answer. It is a good lesson to learn at any age.

Peace.
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Hi, FMX500 and InspiritCarol,

I think Carol gives the right answer in her links.

I don’t know if there’s a difference between soul and spirit. I know some of my pets have spirits. It’s my hope that those pets of mine who have passed on, their spirits are in Paradise.

God loves ya’ll,
Don
 
donsnow said:
Hi, FMX500 and InspiritCarol,

I think Carol gives the right answer in her links.

I don’t know if there’s a difference between soul and spirit. I know some of my pets have spirits. It’s my hope that those pets of mine who have passed on, their spirits are in Paradise.

God loves ya’ll,
Don
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I have the same hopes.

But does God love them as much as He loves humans? If not, then the real question is “why”? He made everything, so why would He have favorites? Matter is matter and cause is still only cause. It’s all the same and yet there are specifically chosen favorites…

At times I loved my dog more than I gave attention to my God. 😃 Why you ask? …because the dog was more realistic than God at times. I felt my dogs love more frequently than I did from God. That only makes sense.

But intelligence can be gained by any animal that evolves the capability to have it. So humans are not special just for having it. Intelligence is nothing but an interpritation.
 
I think this question becomes problematic because we often think about this question without recognizing purposeful distinctions in the order of creation. Angels maintaining their higher position in the created order does not preclude a place for us in eternity. A lower order and simpler life in this earthly existence does not preclude a place for animals in eternity. They will not care about not having the joy of being able to comprehend theoretical physics once and for all the way we might enjoy. The eternal absence of hunger and eternal belly tickles from anyone and everyone will be enough for them.

There is likely pride involved in those flippant unsympathetic voices who resent the idea that a creature that never had to work a nine to five job or share the identical anguish as ourselves should be accorded a place in God’s final order. But animals do endure anguish of their own, and Catholics know at the core of our faith and understanding that there is no such thing as meaningless suffering. The place of animals in eternity does not have to be identical to our own—yes, their souls are of a different order—but it is impossible for their lives to not hold eternal, loving significance to the Being who created them.
 
FMX500 said:
I have the same hopes.

But does God love them as much as He loves humans?
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“…The compassion of human beings is for their neighbors, but the compassion of the Lord is for every living thing…The Lord has not empowered even his holy ones to recount all his marvellous works, which the Lord the Almighty has established so that the universe may stand firm in his glory…How beautiful are all his works! even to the spark and fleeting vision! The universe lives and abides forever, to meet each need each creature is preserved. All of them differ, one from another, yet none of them has he made in vain, for each in turn, as it comes is good; can one ever see enough of their splendor?..”

- Book of Sirach (Holy Bible)

“…The Spirit of the Lord has filled the Universe…The whole universe before you is like a speck that tips the scales, and like a drop of morning dew that falls on the ground. But you are merciful to all, for you can do all things, and you overlook people’s sins, so that they may repent. For you love all things that exist, and detest none of the things that you have made, for you would not have made anything if you had hated it. How would anything have endured if you had not willed it? Or how would anything not called forth by you have been preserved? You spare all things, for they are yours, O Lord, you who love the living. For your immortal spirit is in all things…”

- The Book of Wisdom (Holy Bible)
 
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