Do animals or plants have souls?

Like many catechists, I have been asked time and again whether one’s pet will be in heaven? This is a good question because it gets at something deeper: does my pet have an immortal soul? Will my pet exist after it dies?
 
During my time in Williston, I got to know a few of the non-Catholic pastors, some of which became good friends with whom I would go out hunting. On one occasion while a Baptist pastor and I were returning from the gun range, I asked him this question: “How do you answer children when they ask you if their pet is going to be in heaven?” Keep in mind that his wife worked at a veterinarian clinic and they had a dog and a couple of cats in the house. In his answer he pulled from different passages in the Bible and said that it is possible pets could be in heaven. Then he turned to me and asked how I answer the same question. I was hoping he would. “I just say dogs go to heaven, and cats go to hell.” It caught him off guard and we both laughed.
 
Even though I was joking and I’m still not fond of house cats, I’ve learned to give a more theological response.
 
The soul represents the “life force” which keeps a being alive. Once the soul is gone, so is the life gone from the body. The thing is dead. In this sense, animals do have souls and so do plants. Nevertheless, any human being with common sense knows that animal souls are different than plant souls and both are different than human souls. The Church has always taught that God created man and woman in His image and likeness with dominion over sea creatures, animals, bugs, etc. (Gen. 1:26). We were created as intellectual and rational beings and therefore are very different than plants and animals; our souls are immortal.
 
Dr. Richard Geraghty on EWTN answers the question further: “One principle is that all living things have a soul. Here soul is defined as what makes an organic body live. Now when any living thing dies, its soul is separated from its body. In the case of plants and animals the soul goes out of existence. But in the case of man, the soul remains in existence because it is a spiritual or immaterial thing. Consequently, it differs from the souls of animals in two important respects. First, it is the seat of intelligence or reason. For this reason, a man is held responsible for his actions in a way that animals are not. Secondly, the soul is immortal.”
 
Dr. Geraghty’s response lines up with many Catholic theologians’ thought found through the centuries, including the great St. Thomas Aquinas. Therefore, his answer has enormous weight even though the Church has never officially declared that pets will be or will not be in heaven.
 
Most of us are familiar with Isaiah 11, often heard around Christmas time. This passage speaks about the shoot from the stump of Jesse, namely Jesus, who will bring about a peaceful kingdom. This passage alludes to what the heavenly kingdom will look like. In that chapter, Isaiah states that “the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat; The calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them. The cow and the bear shall graze, together their young shall lie down; the lion shall eat hay like the ox. The baby shall play by the viper’s den, and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.” This may be an allegory for how peaceful the kingdom of God is, but it may also allude to something more.
 
Also, in Revelation 19 we see Jesus riding a white horse as He is bringing to conclusion humanity’s victory over the powers of the evil one. From these passages and others, we see that there most likely will be animals in heaven. Will they be our pets? Probably not. Yet we know, if God re-creates our pets in some way, they will not have gotten there because they chose God. Animals cannot make rational choices, for they have no free will. Animals and plants cannot sin.
 
As a culture we have grown to love animals more and more, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The affection we have for animals is an extension of the affection we have for human life. Yet, we recognize that this can become disordered, and, in fact, it has become so. Some animals now have more rights than some human beings. We save the eagles, turtles and dolphins, but we take the lives of our brothers and sisters who are handicapped or in the womb. We must always remember that the dignity of human life is greater than that of animals. Otherwise, we will all become more concerned about our pets going to heaven then the eternal salvation of the neighbor across the street. We must always love the human being before we love the pet.
 
Fr. Evinger is pastor of St. Joseph in Killdeer, St. Paul in Halliday and St. Joseph in Twin Buttes. If you have a question you were afraid to ask, now is the time to ask it! Simply email your question to info@bismarckdiocese.com with the “Question Afraid to Ask” in the subject line.