LettersLetter from Barbara Pietrowiak about Asking If Animals Go to Heaven - 4 Jul 2006
Letters From All-Creatures.org and The Mary T. and Frank L. Hoffman Family Foundation

Letter from Barbara Pietrowiak about Asking If Animals Go to Heaven - 4 Jul 2006

Hello. Sorry, I have been looking at so many web sites. I obviously got yours confused with another. However, I do love your web site. There’s a lot of information there. I will just keep going through it.

I am Catholic and seven wonderful kitties are my companions.

Every Catholic person whose opinion I ask about animals having souls and going to heaven says they don’t because they act only on instinct; they can’t choose whether to believe in God or not.

I lost my Mom two years ago. She and I lived together for 24 years. I have no siblings and no relatives in the area. I believe my Mom is in heaven. She loved all animals and our kitties just as I do. I pray to St. Francis that he will make sure my Mom has kitties and other animals too. Just as I cannot bear the thought that my Mom is not in heaven and that I will see her again, I feel the same way about our wonderful kitties.

I even asked a Catholic priest and he told me the same thing—animals do not have souls. Did God draw the line with humans? Even though He is the creator, did He decide animals are not worthy of being at peace with their Maker and those that they love for eternity? I am heart sick over this.

Thank you.

Barbara Pietrowiak

Reply from Frank and Mary Hoffman

Dear Barbara:

Thank you for writing back. Were you looking for Catholic Concern for Animals? If so, they’re one of our hosted web sites.

Animals most definitely have souls and spirits, just as humans do, for God created us all as living souls (Hebrew: neh-fesh khah-yaw). Most people, including the clergy deny this obvious fact because if they admit the truth, they are accusing themselves of exploiting and torturing God’s other animals, or paying other people to do it for them. If humans go to heaven, then so do animals.

And, since humans brutally kill over 50 billion innocent land animals and countless sea animals every year, your mother isn’t lacking for animal companionship.

In the Love of the Lord,

Frank and Mary

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