Comments on: Do All Dogs Go to Heaven? http://catholiclane.com/do-all-dogs-go-to-heaven/ Thu, 17 May 2012 02:41:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: PrairieHawk http://catholiclane.com/do-all-dogs-go-to-heaven/#comment-2637 PrairieHawk Tue, 23 Aug 2011 11:43:31 +0000 http://catholiclane.com/?p=10279#comment-2637 In my local newspaper this morning there is an offensive op-ed screed by a member of PETA on a number of recent incidents where animals have escaped slaughterhouses, supposedly running for their lives out of fear of death. The piece is full of emotional embellishments and is clearly not intended to appeal to people's reason, only to their emotions. Overlooked by members of PETA and others like them is the created hierarchy. Some animals simply were given to us to be used as food, others as pets, and others still to remain wild as signs of God's glory. Man is the supreme, rational animal and he properly rules over all of them. I'm sorry if this is offensive to PETA and their ilk, but that's how it is. On the subject of animals in heaven, St. Thomas avers that we will not see them there. But I beg to differ with the Angelic Doctor: I think it would be very odd indeed to have a New Creation without creatures. The Old Testament is replete with images of a coming era of peace among all creatures, when the "Lion will eat straw like the Ox"; and when everything, Man, animal, sea, and sky, will be remade with the glory God had always intended. To me, to hope for a Heaven full of gloriously remade creatures is 100% Catholic and puts our faith squarely where it ought to be: with the God who made the Heavens and the Earth. In my local newspaper this morning there is an offensive op-ed screed by a member of PETA on a number of recent incidents where animals have escaped slaughterhouses, supposedly running for their lives out of fear of death. The piece is full of emotional embellishments and is clearly not intended to appeal to people’s reason, only to their emotions.

Overlooked by members of PETA and others like them is the created hierarchy. Some animals simply were given to us to be used as food, others as pets, and others still to remain wild as signs of God’s glory. Man is the supreme, rational animal and he properly rules over all of them. I’m sorry if this is offensive to PETA and their ilk, but that’s how it is.

On the subject of animals in heaven, St. Thomas avers that we will not see them there. But I beg to differ with the Angelic Doctor: I think it would be very odd indeed to have a New Creation without creatures. The Old Testament is replete with images of a coming era of peace among all creatures, when the “Lion will eat straw like the Ox”; and when everything, Man, animal, sea, and sky, will be remade with the glory God had always intended. To me, to hope for a Heaven full of gloriously remade creatures is 100% Catholic and puts our faith squarely where it ought to be: with the God who made the Heavens and the Earth.

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