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---
title: The Truth About Pope Francis, Religion, and Animals
description: To connect the dots between the preciousness of animal life and the preciousness of human life isn’t to engage in moral equivalence.
canonical: https://time.com/3632860/pope-dogs-heaven-animal-rights/
author: Mary Eberstadt
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article:published_time: 2014-12-14T14:52:47.000Z
article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:50:29.193Z
article:section: Ideas
og:title: The Truth About Religion and Animals
og:description: To connect the dots between the preciousness of animal life and the preciousness of human life isn’t to engage in moral equivalence.
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# The Truth About Religion and Animals

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by 

[Mary Eberstadt](https://time.com/author/mary-eberstadt/)


## Mary Eberstadt


Dec 14, 2014 2:52 PM UTC

by 

[Mary Eberstadt](https://time.com/author/mary-eberstadt/)


## Mary Eberstadt


Dec 14, 2014 2:52 PM UTC

This week’s story about Pope Francis telling a distraught boy that his dog would go to heaven was just so heartwarming—[too bad it wasn’t true](http://www.religionnews.com/2014/12/12/sorry-fido-pope-francis-not-say-pets-going-heaven/). It’s no wonder that media across the globe and pet-lovers everywhere fell for it. The story fit so neatly into what’s become a conventional narrative: the one in which “good” Pope Francis is pitted against “bad” Church traditionalists (often wrongly called “conservatives”).

It’s been pointed out [here](http://ideas.time.com/2013/12/03/the-trojan-pope/) and [there](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2153109,00.html) that Pope Francis isn’t quite as suited to the chosen stereotype as some people think. What the new shaggy dog story goes to show is that neither are the meanie traditionalists and conservatives themselves—especially when it comes to animal welfare.

And therein lies not a tail, but a tale.

The fact is that the most energetic thinking about that subject for the last several years has been emanating from just those supposedly backward quarters. It’s occurring not _despite_ people with an affinity for religious and other traditionalism, but rather, by and _because_ of them.

American Catholic and Catholic-influenced thinkers have been in the forefront of this budding moral movement at least since the appearance 12 years ago of Matthew Scully’s seminal book [_Dominion._](http://www.amazon.com/Dominion-Power-Suffering-Animals-Mercy/dp/0312261470/ref=tmm%5Fhrd%5Fswatch%5F0?%5Fencoding=UTF8&sr=&qid) Where the prominent Republican speechwriter first led, others of similar leanings have followed (this author included), mindful carnivores and vegans/vegetarians alike. Pro-animal writings and debate are now an itinerant cottage industry in venues like [_National Review_](http://www.nationalreview.com/article/393980/support-animal-welfare-grows-right-mary-eberstadt), _First Things_ magazine, at the [_American Conservative_](http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/conservative-case-for-animal-welfare/), and elsewhere far outside the orbits of the typically secular-to-atheist animal rights constituency inspired by utilitarian theorist Peter Singer (_Animal Liberation_).


Similarly, _The New Atlantis_ recently devoted an entire [issue](http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/regarding-animals) to the moral consideration of animals, including Caitrin Nicol’s widely read instant classic, “Do Elephants Have Souls?” The latest [issue](http://www.msmary.edu/College%5Fof%5Fliberal%5Farts/department-of-theology/jmt/) of _The Journal of Moral Theology_ likewise consists entirely of articles about the moral meaning of non-human animals. And so many evangelical Protestants are now speaking out that the Humane Society of the United States this fall released a 12-part [video series](http://www.humanesociety.org/about/departments/faith/video-series.html) called “Faith Voices on Animal Protection.”

Why so much interest in animal welfare from such perhaps unexpected precincts?

In part, the answer is that religious concern for animals comes as a surprise only to readers unacquainted with religion—a number that’s increasing, as many surveys [show](//www.pewforum.org/2012/10/09/nones-on-the-rise/). As many “nones” seem not to know, theological concern for animals is in fact longstanding, as the dietary rules of Judaism concerning slaughter are the first to show. The Catholic _Catechism_ states that animals are “owed” moral treatment, and many Christian thinkers have agreed; theologian Charles Camosy’s recent book _For Love of Animals_ is a useful primer [here](http://www.amazon.com/For-Love-Animals-Christian-Consistent/dp/1616366621). Among others, Trappists, Cistercians, Benedictines, and a number of saints have adopted vegetarianism or otherwise debated the requirements of mercy regarding animals. Recent popes have also appealed variously for clemency toward birds and beasts. Benedict XVI, to name one, deplored the industrial creation of _foie gras_, to the approval of [PETA](http://www.peta.org/features/pope-benedict-xvi/).


Today’s new moral energy is also emanating from such quarters for another reason: the similarity discerned by some people between the industrial trashing of animal life via factory farms, and the industrial trashing of human life via factory abortion. When Pope Francis decries the tragedy of a “throwaway culture,” he is not only talking about fast-food wrappers or unwanted kitties—as his 2013 Apostolic Exhortation   _Evangelii Gaudium_, section 214, [makes clear](http://www.vatican.va/evangelii-gaudium/en/).

To connect the dots between the preciousness of animal life and the preciousness of human life isn’t to engage in moral equivalence. It’s rather to observe that people have big enough hearts to cherish both.

Once upon a time, concern for already-born animal life was thought to be on one side of the political aisle; and concern for unborn human life on the other. Today, more people can see beyond that false divide to a place where the two positions logically align. Maybe that’s why the Millennials, for all their vaunted progressivism, are [more anti-abortion](http://www.gallup.com/poll/126581/Generational-Differences-Abortion-Narrow.aspx) in polls than their Boomer parents; and they are simultaneously also [more concerned with animal welfare](http://www.qsrmagazine.com/marc-halperin/fulfilling-generation-next), as the food industry is the first to know.


Whether furry friends await us in the hereafter is a question unlikely to be answered any time soon, including within the Apostolic Palace. But that more and more people today care about the dogs still here on earth—and the elephants, and the horses, and the pigs, and yes, the chickens too—is a widening social truth. And in a twist unforeseen a generation ago, believers from all over are helping to build that thing.

_Mary Eberstadt is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and author most recently of_ How the West Really Lost God_._

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