In my younger days, I tried keeping pets with some disastrous and hilarious results. My Betta fighting fish lost the brilliant blue colour it had to turn a dull brown, and my goldfish spent their time trying to jump out of the receptacle they were held in. I did keep terrapins for a longer duration, but eventually released them into the wild. Then I tried keeping plants – they cannot be more difficult than animals to keep, I enthused. I was wrong. My cacti and Tillandsia airplants quickly wilted and died. Keeping pets and plants are tested to be for sure not my gift and charism.

For pet owners, who invest a lot of their emotions and time into ensuring the wellbeing of their pets, it can be devastating when the pet is ill, paralysed, injured, or in their last legs of old age. Pets inherently are meant to bring out the goodness of human beings, and they do amazing things to support the mental health and wellbeing of human beings. As one cares for one’s pets, the virtues of compassion and gentleness are nurtured and developed.

As stewards of God’s creation, we are enjoined to uphold the integrity of creation. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

CCC. 2415 The seventh commandment enjoins respect for the integrity of creation. Animals, like plants and inanimate beings, are by nature destined for the common good of past, present, and future humanity. Use of the mineral, vegetable, and animal resources of the universe cannot be divorced from respect for moral imperatives. Man’s dominion over inanimate and other living beings granted by the Creator is not absolute; it is limited by concern for the quality of life of his neighbour, including generations to come; it requires a religious respect for the integrity of creation.

CCC. 2416 Animals are God’s creatures. He surrounds them with his providential care. By their mere existence they bless him and give him glory. Thus men owe them kindness. We should recall the gentleness with which saints like St. Francis of Assisi or St. Philip Neri treated animals.

CCC. 2417 God entrusted animals to the stewardship of those whom he created in his own image. Hence it is legitimate to use animals for food and clothing. They may be domesticated to help man in his work and leisure. Medical and scientific experimentation on animals is a morally acceptable practice, if it remains within reasonable limits and contributes to caring for or saving human lives.

CCC. 2418 It is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly. It is likewise unworthy to spend money on them that should as a priority go to the relief of human misery. One can love animals; one should not direct to them the affection due only to persons.

The issue that society has, is that human responsibility and priorities can often be misplaced. We live in a society that has a propensity to cast its elderly aside to languish in nursing homes, while we lavish an inordinate amount of love and affection on our pets, or we replace necessary human relations with children or even our spouse with pets, with the uncomfortable truth that sometimes we would prefer an animal pet to a human being. Again, it is not a bad thing to keep and tend to pets, however, as Pope Francis has pointed out, our love and responsibilities should first be directed to the human being – “I spoke about the demographic winter that exists nowadays: people do not want to have children, or just one and no more. And many couples do not have children because they do not want to, or they have just one because they do not want any more, but they have two dogs, two cats…. Yes, dogs and cats take the place of children.”  (Pope Francis, 2022, para. 8). Our priorities should be first directed to our neighbour, the poor, the disenfranchised, and we need to rethink the care that we extend to our brothers and sisters, and especially the relationships shared between parents and children. The danger of replacing human relations with pets is that we are depending on animals to fulfil a need that they are not meant to meet (Liedl, 2022). The numbers speak for themselves. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, pet adoption numbers increased exponentially, but as normalcy has returned, the numbers of pet abandonment shot through the roof, implying: The animal does not fill a need for me anymore, so I have no more responsibility for this animal (Leddl, 2022). While there are highly responsible pet owners, there exists an equal number of pet owners who are not, and this behaviour falls short of the expectations that human beings are to have with regard to the stewardship of creation.

Having unpacked these tenets, we now come to the all important question – would I see my pet in heaven?

To come to an understanding of this, we must come to understand what Heaven is.

CCC.1024 says, that Heaven is “This perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity – this communion of life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed – is called “heaven.” Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness.”

As animals do not have a rational soul, they cannot participate in the Beatific Vision. Material things like an Angsana tree, or a pet stick insect, will not go to heaven, but Bishop Flores, proposes that it may be possible to see these things in the thought of God, and these may be present in the Mind of God when we look at God. As we see Him face to face, we would also see all the thought, goodness, and love that has been poured into everything that He has made. As St. Thomas Aquinas proposes, it is more perfect to see something in God, than to see God in something. As God does not forget the creatures He has made, we would be able to see the presence of our pets in the mind of God and these would appear more perfect than as they would in front of us on Earth (Liedl, 2022; Broussard, n.d.).

 

By the Grace of God,

Brian Bartholomew Tan

References

Broussard, K. (n.d.). Do Pets go to Heaven? Catholic Answers. Retrieved June 16, 2023 from https://www.catholic.com/qa/do-pets-go-to-heaven

Catechism of the Catholic Church. (1993). Catechism of the Catholic Church. Editrice Libreria Vaticana. Retrieved from https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P8B.HTM

Liedl, J. (2022, March 8). Bishop Flores and the Theology of Pets. National Catholic Register. Retrieved June 16, 2023 from https://www.ncregister.com/interview/bishop-flores-and-the-theology-of-pets

Pope Francis. (2022, January 5). General Audience. Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Retrieved from https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/audiences/2022/documents/20220105-udienza-generale.html