26 Marian Helper • Fall 2022 • Marian.org Do pets go to Heaven? By Chris Sparks But the true answer is, we really don’t know. The Church does not teach definitively whether or not there will be animals in Heaven, or in the new earth after the Resurrection of the dead. The Scriptures do describe animals at peace in the new creation (see, for instance, Is 11:6-9; 65:25), but that may be symbolic. Aquinas says Saint Thomas Aquinas held, according to his followers, that there would be neither plants nor animals in the new world after the end of time. He didn’t put his answer in writing, since he left his Summa Theologiae unfinished when he died in 1274. It was completed after his death by his students, and they settled on animals being excluded from the afterlife. However (brace yourselves!), St. Thomas Aquinas and his students have not always been right —we see that in his rejection of the Immaculate Conception, which the Church later defined as infallible dogma in 1854. Apologist and author Jimmy Akin points out that the “standard theological analysis” has generally been that animals would not be in Heaven, but that this is not binding. Generally, the reasoning is that human persons are immortal because we have spiritual souls; animals, on the other hand, have a lower sort of soul, a merely animal and not personal soul. The Church has not taught in a binding or official way on this point, Akin says. Philosopher Peter Kreeft, on the other hand, asks in EverythingYou EverWanted to Know About Heaven: Why not? Much more reasonable is C.S. Lewis’ speculation that we will be “between the angels who are our elder brothers and the beasts who are our jesters, servants, and playfellows” (That Hideous Strength). Scripture seems to confirm this: “thy judgments are like the great deep; man and beast thou savest, O Lord” (Psalm 36:6). Animals belong in the “new earth” (Revelation 21:1) as much as trees. Ask any pet owner if their beloved Fido, Kitty, or even Pudgie will join them one day (God willing) in Heaven, and the answer is always an emphatic “Yes!” This has to be one of the most common questions people have about the Catholic faith. Of course, in the face of the grief of a person who has lost a beloved pet, it’s hard to say anything other than yes.
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