Animals and souls QUESTION from Deidre March 29, 2001 Hello and thank you in advance for your help with my question. I have heard that animals, according to the Catholic religion, do not have souls. Please tell me this is not true? If so, I am very hurt and shocked...
Deidre
ANSWER by John-Paul Ignatius, OLSM on June 4, 2001 Dear Miss Deidre:
All living things have souls of one sort or another. St. Thomas Aquinas discussed three kinds of soul if I remember correctly. But the soul we are talking about here is an immortal soul that is individually created by God. In that sense no, animals do not have that kind of soul, only humans. That kind of soul that humans have is in the image of God. It is special and particular.
Fluffy and Bozer do not enjoy that kind of soul.
This question is really about Do animals go to heaven?
That no one knows. Some famous apologist like Peter Kreeft believes animals can go to heaven. No one knows. God can bring animals to heaven if he wishes of course. We have to leave that up to him.
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