I came across this article, but I can't get it to post so I will copy the key points.
I have two reasons for posting this.
1) This is the first time I have ever come across a major religious leader expressing such a sentiment about animals. It is an important message. If you believe that animals go to heaven, what does that say about fur farming and many of the other things we discuss.
2)I am Catholic and maybe I am not the only Catholic who respects animals and sees that they are more not less in the eyes of the creator.
If I can get any of the articles to post I will.
Quote:'All donkeys go to heaven' Pope says the Kingdom of Heaven is open to ALL God's creatures
POPE Francis has received an unusual early Christmas present of two donkeys, following his declaration that animals do, after all, go to heaven.
Published: 15:06, Fri, December 5, 2014
By Hannah Roberts for the Express
The pope addressing the crowd at The VaticanGETTY
Pope Francis addresses his weekly audience
In his weekly audience in St Peter’s Francis quoted the apostle Paul who comforted a child who was crying after his dog died.
“One day we will see our animals again in eternity of Christ’, Francis quoted Paul as saying. The Pope added: “Paradise is open to all God’s creatures.”
His position is markedly different from that of Pope Benedict XVI said that the other animals ‘are not called to the eternal life’.
This week the pope was presented with the two donkeys, named Thea and Noah, by a company that produces donkey milk for babies that are allergic to other milks.
After thanking him for the curious gift, a delighted Francis revealed that he too as a baby was fed donkey milk, Pierluigi Christophe Orunesu, of donkey farming cooperative Eurolactis Italia, claimed.
Paradise is open to all God’s creatures
The Pope
Mr Orunesu said the pope was ‘very happy. “I told him he will have two friends for life,” he told Dairy Reporter website.
“Pope Francis told me today in front of media that his mother regularly gave him donkey’s milk where she could not provide enough breast milk or later on when he was a child,” he said.
The company also donated 21 gallons of donkey’s milk to the pediatric hospital in Rome.
At the service in St Peter’s Square the Pope also met and blessed rescue dogs.
The donkeys will now go to live at the pope’s farm at the papal summer palace of Castel Gandolfo 30 miles outside Rome.
I have two reasons for posting this.
1) This is the first time I have ever come across a major religious leader expressing such a sentiment about animals. It is an important message. If you believe that animals go to heaven, what does that say about fur farming and many of the other things we discuss.
2)I am Catholic and maybe I am not the only Catholic who respects animals and sees that they are more not less in the eyes of the creator.
If I can get any of the articles to post I will.
Catherine