Posted on 07/24/2015 11:09:47 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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.
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.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
This guy’s pretty “wordly”...
The kingdom of heaven does not reflect the material things we experience here.
Somewhere in the OT there’s a passage that relates something about you have no worries about the barn you didn’t build after you’re in Paradise. ....
What they'll never, ever do is read the clear dogmatic condemnation of contraception in Casti Connubii (Pope Pius XI) and declare that "binding".
Great...there will still be BBQ in heaven. Now I’m ready.
Cockroaches go to Heaven? That’s good news for the Democrats!
I thought the Papal Encyclical was just opinion on church and spiritual matters - more or less. Acting as the Vicar of Christ, the statements would be made from St. Peter’s Throne and known as Ex Cathedra and, therefore, binding truth for all Catholics as doctrine.
Isn’t this so, Catholic brothers and sisters?
The “barn” reference I can think of is in the parable of the rich fool in Luke 12:13-
So cats, dogs and goats are created in God’s image . . . that is, created as spiritual beings? If this Pope would read his Bible he would have learned that God gave man dominion over the beasts of the field.
I sense pure evil in this clown of a Pope.
Cockroaches in heaven? Oh great. There better be some Orkin men up there too.
“In heaven the Bulack Man will finally HAVE 40 acres and a Tractor.....Revrunt :Louis Farraklown 2015
Here is why I think the Pope is correct ( somewhat )...
God created the animals and said they were good (Genesis 1:25).
Therefore, there is no reason why there could not be pets and animals on the new heavens and new earth (Revelation 21:1).
If one believes in a literal millenial kingdom here on earth, will most definitely be animals during the millennial kingdom (Isaiah 11:6; 65:25).
It is as you say.
“Great...there will still be BBQ in heaven. “
You will be met with all those cows you BBQ’d here on earth.
Post...of...the...DAY!! LOL
Terminix - they have branches there...
Encyclicals are binding? I think not!
Sorry, but cockroaches are going to H-E-Double Hockey Sticks
It’s just a letter. Correct.
Flies, fleas, mosquito's, wasps, hornets, yellow jackets, ticks, etc etc etc ....
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