I think that my article in the New York Daily News is
breaking news that has not been reported anywhere else in the United States
(maybe in the English-speaking world)—that the Catholic Church has an official
position, for the first time ever, on animals in heaven.
You may recall that last December, there was quite the
brouhaha when it was reported that the Pope had told a young boy that animals
will go to heaven (the New York Times put the story on the front page). The
story turned out to be wrong, and so there was another big round of “he didn’t
say that” stories.
Here you go:
Bruce
BRUCE FRIEDRICH is director of policy and advocacy for Farm
Sanctuary, a national farm animal protection organization based in Watkins
Glen, N.Y. He is a 1996 graduate of Grinnell College. Former CW and Plowshares
activist. Contact: info@farmsanctuary.org.
----
"All dogs, and cats, and pigs, and goats, and
cockroaches go to
heaven: So says Pope Francis" by Bruce Friedrich
The question of whether animals will join us in the
afterlife finally has a definitive response from Rome.
It’s a topic that’s been long debated, with Popes weighing
in unofficially on both sides. Last December, a story broke nationwide claiming
that Pope Francis had declared that animals are going to heaven, but it turns
out that the media had conflated two stories, and that it was actually Pope
Paul VI who had, many years earlier, told a young boy that “one day we will see
our animals in the eternity of Christ.”
Paul was later contradicted by Pope Benedict XVI, who said
in a sermon that “for other creatures, who are not called to eternity, death
just means the end of existence on Earth.”
Notably, neither of these were doctrinal statements, and
Catholic theologians continued to disagree and debate.
But no more. Despite last year’s media mix up — and despite
Paul’s and Benedict's contradictory statement — Pope Francis did just
officially declare that animals will join us in heaven, in his June 18
Encyclical, which offers official and binding doctrine on the question.
And in fact, he has gone far beyond animals and the
afterlife, linking animals to the Trinity and declaring that the Mother of God
“grieves for the sufferings of the crucified poor and for creatures of this
world laid waste by human power.” For Catholics, the idea of Mary grieving for
both the poor and animals, in the same sentence, is revolutionary.
So it’s almost anti-climactic that on the question of
animals in heaven, Francis takes a stand: “Eternal life will be a shared
experience of awe, in which each creature, resplendently transfigured, will take
its rightful place and have something to give those poor men and women who will
have been liberated once and for all.”
The Holy Father reiterates this in the prayers that close
the Encyclical, which are filled with pro-animal sentiments, including this: “Teach us to discover the worth of each thing, to be
filled with awe and contemplation, to recognize that we are profoundly united
with every creature as we journey towards your infinite light.”
cannot any longer be considered a question of free
discussion among theologians.” In other words, the Church has spoken.
The most cruelty that is meted out by humanity against God’s
other creatures is a result of eating meat, dairy and eggs. Indeed, the average
American Catholic eats dozens of farm animals every single year, thus directly
contributing to their suffering and death.
All of us can take a stand against this abuse by no longer
eating animals or their products, and when we do, we’ll be acting in clear
alignment with Catholic Doctrine.
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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