Do animals go to Heaven?

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Could somebody please give me a straight answer?Do or do not animals go to Heaven? I once had a lovely little gerbil called Mary,who was named after the Blessed Virgin, and she was just as good as any human and never did anything wrong in her whole life. If God is fair, then he must bring animals to Heaven. Also, the book of Ecclesiasticals seems to imply that he does. I can’t remember the exact verse, but all 12 chapters seem to say that we are just the same as the animals.What is the truth?
 
All living creatures – angels, humans, animals, plants – have souls. However, there are two kinds of souls: spiritual and material. Angels and humans have spiritual souls. Animals and plants have material souls. Something that is spirit is not subject to the decay of change. Thus, angels do not die and human souls survive the separation of body and soul at death. Material things however are subject to change, thus they are subject to decay and death. As animals and plants have material souls, at death their souls cease to exist.

Whether God will choose to re-create animal and plant souls at the end of time when the material universe is transformed (cf. CCC 1060) is something we do not yet know.

Source: forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=17367
 
“Material souls?” Never heard that before.

However, In Apocalypse Jesus is seen atop a white horse…so it would argue that animals are in Heaven.
 
I really hope that animals go on to heaven. My childhood dog was angelic by nature and deserves heaven.
 
Teeliumtrozzle said:
Could somebody please give me a straight answer?Do or do not animals go to Heaven? I once had a lovely little gerbil called Mary,who was named after the Blessed Virgin, and she was just as good as any human and never did anything wrong in her whole life. If God is fair, then he must bring animals to Heaven. Also, the book of Ecclesiasticals seems to imply that he does. I can’t remember the exact verse, but all 12 chapters seem to say that we are just the same as the animals.What is the truth?
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Animals do NOT go to Heaven even though pet lovers might want to believe that. There is absolutely no Church teaching that says or even hints that animals go to heaven.
 
johnstown_johnn said:
“Material souls?” Never heard that before.

However, In Apocalypse Jesus is seen atop a white horse…so it would argue that animals are in Heaven.
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Don’t forget that all that is seen by our eyes is seen by people of the flesh, carnel. That means that what the eye needs to see is what the mind perceives so that the mind can adapt to how ever God created it to be. Could it be that all there is on earth is all there is in heaven since God made us to His likeness. Meaning that if God made us to His likeness then may be all else is to His likeness and is perceived as such by mankind because it is that way in God’s eye as well?

Godbless.
 
I like my priests answer and Fr. Groechel’s (along with some saints I think), if you make it to heaven and you need your dog/cat/etc. to make you happy, you’ll have it. The part about souls is not pertinent with God, he can do whatever he wants. To say," No "about anything, even salvation, is never 100%, God always has the last word, and our human minds can’t encompass his knowledge.
I would never cause anyone duress by saying they wont see their beloved dog or pet again, it isn’t that important. If they do, great, if they don’t, it wont matter to them at the time.
 
Pope John Paul II taught love for animals more than any other pope in recent memory.

In 1990, His Holiness proclaimed that “the animals possess a soul and men must love and feel solidarity with our smaller brethren.” He went on to say that all animals are “fruit of the creative action of the Holy Spirit and merit respect” and that they are “as near to God as men are.” Animal lovers everywhere were overjoyed!

The Holy Father reminded people that all living beings, including animals, came into being because of the “breath” of God. Animals possess the divine spark of life–the living quality that is the soul–and they are not inferior beings, as factory farmers, fur farmers, and others who exploit animals for profit would have us believe.

After he became Pope John Paul II, His Holiness went to Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis, and spoke of the saint’s love for animals. He declared, “We, too, are called to a similar attitude.”

PSALM 36:6 Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your judgments are like the great deep; you save humans and animals alike, O LORD.
 
debraran said:
Pope John Paul II taught love for animals more than any other pope in recent memory.

In 1990, His Holiness proclaimed that “the animals possess a soul and men must love and feel solidarity with our smaller brethren.” He went on to say that all animals are “fruit of the creative action of the Holy Spirit and merit respect” and that they are “as near to God as men are.” Animal lovers everywhere were overjoyed!

The Holy Father reminded people that all living beings, including animals, came into being because of the “breath” of God. Animals possess the divine spark of life–the living quality that is the soul–and they are not inferior beings, as factory farmers, fur farmers, and others who exploit animals for profit would have us believe.

After he became Pope John Paul II, His Holiness went to Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis, and spoke of the saint’s love for animals. He declared, “We, too, are called to a similar attitude.”

PSALM 36:6 Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your judgments are like the great deep; you save humans and animals alike, O LORD.
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I loved reading this, thank you for sharing.

When I was little, I grew up in a difficult home. We had a dog named Sugar who was raised wtih me and my brothers litterally. She was a Samoyed / Husky mix and sheded alot so my mom trained her not to go on the carpet anywhere in the house. So essentially she stayed in the kitchen. She was very smart and never really broke that rule except this one time…
I had just gotten beat pretty bad and was in my room crying. I don’t know where my mom went i think she must’ve left to go somewhere. All of a sudden my door opened and here comes Sugar sneaking into my room. She had snuck onto the carpet all the way upstairs, somehow got my door open and tiptoed into my room. I was on the floor and she sat down in front of me. I hugged her and cried into her neck. Then she licked the tears off my face, sniffed me as if she was making sure that I was ok. Then her ears perked up and she gave me one last lick and and snuck back out of the room and down stairs. It was a few minutes later that I heard my mom pull in the driveway.

I believe that she was sincerely concerned for my welfare and was emotionally distressed at the situation. She had feelings and this wasn’t the only display of them I saw growing up. We all need to respect and love animals because they do have feelings too. I believe that sometimes God sends them to comfort us, sometimes to protect us, and sometimes just to love us as he would love us.

I think that Sugar deserves heaven for all help she provided me and my brothers. For the comfort and care she provided us as children, for the selfless protection on a few occasions, for convincing me that life was worth living, for making me laugh, and overall for making a rather miserable existance (at the time) more tolerable. Oh and for all the mice that she brought us even though we didn’t eat them. 🙂

If I am so lucky to go to heaven I am going to ask God to allow Sugar to join us if she isn’t there already. I can’t imagine a heaven without her.
 
Don’t know the answer, I guess only God does, BUT if my Rat Terrier who is named Precious MARY wants a chance, she had better straighten out!!😛
 
God knows we love our pets. I believe even though they don’t have souls like we do that God will allow them in to His kingdom.
 
Everybody seems to have a different opinion. But because God is fair, he would never leave someone out of heaven just for being an animal. So I believe that of course they go to heaven. But how can we know weather to believe in rainbow bridge?
 
thistle said:
Animals do NOT go to Heaven even though pet lovers might want to believe that. There is absolutely no Church teaching that says or even hints that animals go to heaven.
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Actually, the Church is pretty much silent on the issue. Although the Catechism gets into the subject of animals having souls, it never says one way or another whether they will definitely be in Heaven or not. Why? Because the Church doesn’t know the answer because the answer has not been revealed to us yet.

What HAS been revealed to us is that at the end of time, there will be a new Heaven and a new earth and that leaves us plenty of room for HOPE that there’s a possibility God could give us back our pets at that time. After all, He created them and He loves them every bit as much as we do, if not more. 😉
 
masondoggy said:
Actually, the Church is pretty much silent on the issue. Although the Catechism gets into the subject of animals having souls, it never says one way or another whether they will definitely be in Heaven or not. Why? Because the Church doesn’t know the answer because the answer has not been revealed to us yet.

What HAS been revealed to us is that at the end of time, there will be a new Heaven and a new earth and that leaves us plenty of room for HOPE that there’s a possibility God could give us back our pets at that time. After all, He created them and He loves them every bit as much as we do, if not more. 😉
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And besides how boring would heaven be without birds chirping in the trees, fuzzy ferrets frolicing around our feet and dogs and cats romping through the fields, horses galloping in the distance and so on. (As long as we can leave spiders behind I am all good. 😉 )
 
I was watching “March of the Penguins” last night and I just marvel at how beautiful all God’s creatures are in their own way…how so many are “like humans” (but better;) ) and how honored I am to learn about another beautuful thing he made.

I know “the lion will lie down with the lamb one day” and I hope I am worthy to see it.

Isaiah 11:6-11 where God says, “the wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox . . . They will neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord . . .” (Isaiah 65: 25).
 
I cannot imagine two donkeys of the New Testament NOT being in Heaven.

Donkey #1. It was the one that carried the Mother of God to Bethlehem. This creature had a kind of “walk on” scene at the Savior’s birth.

Donkey #2. This was a very young donkey never carried anyone before; Jesus was its first passenger as He entered the gate of Jerusalem to the outcries of, “Hossanah to the Son of David !” on the First Palm Sunday.

I truly believe we will all see those two when we reach the Eternal Kingdom.
 
If all of creation is longing for the revelation of the sons of God, i.e. the perfection of the entire created order when the New Heavens and the New Earth come on the Last Day, well, if that was true back when it was written, I cannot imagine that God would frustrate the theological hope of all the animals that were a part of the creation then and all the way through today. It would be cruel for them to have that hope and then lose it like a dead JW.

I really loathe cockroaches though and hope they won’t be there.

My pets have all been great and I hope they’re there!

Wouldn’t it be marvelous to have communion and communication in the perfected creation? I love Dr. Doolittle and did as a kid. “If we could talk to the animals…just imagine it!” Maybe it will be like that. That would be so cool because I find myself occasionally getting frustrated trying to understand what my cats are telling me, and I yell at them, “Speak English!” 😃
 
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