Will our pets go to heaven with us?

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Many Cahtolcis insistt hat animals have a Mateiral soul, not an immortal soul. But nto all. Neither has the HCurch spacificllay taught htat Animals lack Immortal souls. And have only mateiral souls. This lien of reaosnign was origionated by St.Thomas Aquinas, and though he is repsected, eh was nto infallable.Many have asusmed it and teahc it as fact. It is not.

St.Fransis, as one poste said, flatly disagreed. C.S.Lewis tended to agree with St.Fransis, and did nto Limit Gods love to humanity, btu said it extends to all creatures.

The botom line is that we don’t know. No Scriptrue supports either position direclty, neither does tradition support either, neither is their any trachign form the magestrum that says htis.

Ask an apologist forum may say definitively that Animals lack immrotal souls and have only mateiral ones, btu they have no mroe evidenc than those who disagree, no amtter hwo authoritatively they sound. I know, Ive had this debate before.
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  Also, let us not be so self centred. I dotn want my pets in ehaven to make me happy and no clapptrap abotu how when we ar ein Heaven we will no longer need them as we will have God suffices. why cant we think fo them as we do others? As individual souls who can attain heavenf or their own merit, and that it has nohtgin to do with us?
A cat can go to ehaven because the Cat is loved by God and has an immortal soul. Not because a Human ever loved the cat, who may have grown up int he wold and never even seen a Human.
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God's love for the animal, not ours, is the wueasiton.
All this said, I do beleive animals have immortal souls, and htis does not contradict current CHruch teahcings on the subject.Regardless of what some will say.
 
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Bella3502:
I don’t need Biblical evidence on this one. I already have several pets there waiting patiently for me… :yup:
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So do I!!!
I have had people ask me this question before. I tell them all the same thing: I don’t know if there were any animals or not before my Daddy got to Heaven, but I can promise you that when he got there, he* personally* started letting them in.
 
Will our pets go to heaven with us?
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I once had a stuffed toy, a Morgan dog. I loved that toy, even though I threw it out of the window of a moving car (I have no idea why - I don’t remember the incident). My parents could never find it, though they searched the roadside for hours, while I cried over my loss.

Will I have my stuffed Morgan toy in heaven? Of course not! Will I miss Morgan in heaven? Of course I won’t! I don’t miss Morgan now (I don’t even *remember *that stuffed toy that I cried over so much as a child).

** The pets we have on earth are material possessions. They come and go, as all material possessions do. We won’t even remember them in heaven, no matter how much we love them here on earth.**

Our pets will mean no more to us in heaven than our beloved childhood stuffed animals. They will be gone, and we won’t care.

I love ***all ***my pets (four cats and a dog, currently). But they will NOT be in heaven with me, and I won’t miss them (even though that seems hard to believe now).
 
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TobyLue:
if we believe that there will be pets in heaven, can we also believe that there will be pets in hell?
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Not at all. As I quoted Staretz Zozimo (Karamazov Brothers), animals are a sign of “the mystery of existence without sin”.
None of God s creatures will perish forever.
 
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barsapp:
http://www.drpsychotic.com/godandcountry/vatican/earthlyparadise.jpg
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That is a painting of the Garden of Eden on EARTH – not a scene from HEAVEN.
Donna P:
Church teaching is that everything has a soul
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Where is the teaching on this. I was always under the impression that only humans were gifted with a soul. Can you please provide a reference which says otherwise?
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mlchance:
Just as animals were an integral part of the first Eden, there is every reason to believe they will be an integral part of the new Eden created when all old things pass away and God re-creates Earth and Heaven.
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“… every reason to believe …” ?

I don’t see any reason to believe that anything created without an IMMORTAL soul will live in the after life.
 
Sir Knight:
That is a painting of the Garden of Eden on EARTH – not a scene from HEAVEN.
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That is the point!!! If this is the EARTHLY PARADISE, how much better must be the HEAVENLY PARADISE!!! I have to insist, but many of the early fathers of the church taught that flora and fauna, are going to be integral components of the future world. To share eternity with the ones we loved on earth (including our pets) is part of the perfect hapiness. Heaven means the perfect, undivided, hapiness. As it was meant from the beginning.
 
Animals don’t have immortal souls, when they die, they are dead.

No heaven for them, nothing.

If they could go to heaven, that means they could also go to hell. To reach there they would have to commit mortal sins. They lack the necessary reason for that. Animals actions are instinctive and trained.
 
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Zooey:
So do I!!!
I have had people ask me this question before. I tell them all the same thing: I don’t know if there were any animals or not before my Daddy got to Heaven, but I can promise you that when he got there, he* personally* started letting them in.
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I’m with Zooey’s Daddy. I would expect to see my beloved pets in heaven. It’s all about LOVE y’all.
 
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mjdonnelly:
Animals don’t have immortal souls, when they die, they are dead. No heaven for them, nothing.
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They have God’s love. That’s enough to go to Heaven. The mistake here is to consider that we (mankind) are a separate thing from the rest of the Creation. All the Creation was redeemed by the Christ, the one who makes “all things new” (Rev. 21,6).
 
I read once in some Q&A column by a Priest that, if having your dog or cat was necessary to your happiness, then it would be with you somewhere in Heaven, because Heaven is complete happiness.

Notice that the Scriptures give practically no details about what Heaven is like. You cant find a chapter and verse for a question like this. But God is love, and made everything there is and loves His creation. I think God loves my cats and dogs more than I do.
 
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barsapp:
The mistake here is to consider that we (mankind) are a separate thing from the rest of the Creation.
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We are different. We are the only creatures made in the image and likeness of God and given an immortal soul.
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barsapp:
All the Creation was redeemed by the Christ, the one who makes “all things new” (Rev. 21,6).
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But it is the soul that lives on and without a soul, there is nothing to exist after death.
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Pauli:
… if having your dog or cat was necessary to your happiness, then it would be with you somewhere in Heaven, because Heaven is complete happiness …
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That doesn’t make sense. What happens if a loved one (mother, father, brother, sister, husband, wife, etc.) is damned to the fires of hell. Will they become undamned and end up in heaven just because they are “necessary for someone’s happiness”?

If so, that contradicts the teachings about heaven, hell and mortal sins.

I’m sure that there are going to be a whole lot more people who will be needing a human who is in hell for their happiness than a pet.
 
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Pauli:
I read once in some Q&A column by a Priest that, if having your dog or cat was necessary to your happiness, then it would be with you somewhere in Heaven, because Heaven is complete happiness.
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I think this is the priest your thinking of…A very Well respected and learned Priest I might add. 🙂

Ask Father Hardon
John A. Hardon:
***Q. Is it correct to say that pets do not go to Heaven after death because animals do not have immortal souls? Are religious medals for pets wrong? Do they lead to misunderstanding about animals, souls, and Heaven?
—I.R., Michigan ***

A. Pets, as pets, do not go to Heaven. But animals and such like beings may be said to be brought to Heaven because, after the Last Day, they can serve as part of the joys of Heaven. In other words, animals and such like creatures may be said to be brought to Heaven to serve as part of our Heavenly joys. Clearly, we do not need pets to provide happiness in Heaven. But pets and such like creatures will be brought to Heaven to become part of our creaturely happiness in the Heavenly kingdom. Consequently, we may say that animals and such like creatures may be brought to Heaven by God to enable us to enjoy them as part of our creaturely happiness in Heavenly beatitude. Absolutely speaking, medals and such like religious articles may be part of Heavenly beatitude. Certainly, they do not serve the same purpose as other creatures do in Hea ven. However, while they do not serve the purpose which medals do on earth, they may nevertheless be part of God’s mysterious providence in our Heavenly beatitude.
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Not to mention …many Early Church Fathers thought animals would be in heaven along with the flora and the fauna etc.
 
Sir Knight:
We are the only creatures made in the image and likeness of God and given an immortal soul.
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Romans 8, 18-23: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us. For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.”
 
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barsapp:
Romans 8, 18-23: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us. For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.”
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Sir Knight:
But it is the soul that lives on and without a soul, there is nothing to exist after death.
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Quick! Let’s ignore the whole picture!

We are not going to live on just as spirit. We will be remade, given glorified bodies, just as demonstrated by the resurrected Christ. The Heaven and Earth that exist now are temporary. There will be a new Heaven and new Earth. In that new Earth, there will be animals, possibly including our beloved pets.

– Mark L. Chance.
 
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mlchance:
Quick! Let’s ignore the whole picture!

We are not going to live on just as spirit. We will be remade, given glorified bodies, just as demonstrated by the resurrected Christ. The Heaven and Earth that exist now are temporary. There will be a new Heaven and new Earth. In that new Earth, there will be animals, possibly including our beloved pets.

– Mark L. Chance.
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Never said that there might not be animals. Only said that current animals will not be there because they lack a soul and once they die, they are dead. Unlike humans, who, when we die, we have an immortal soul which will live on.
 
Sir Knight:
Never said that there might not be animals. Only said that current animals will not be there…
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In your opinion…

– Mark L. Chance.
 
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