In the Advertisement "Animals and Religion" placed in your paper by
the Catholic Study Circle for Animal Welfare the Pope is quoted as
saying that animals have souls and that they are as near to God as
men are. I find it hard to believe that the Pope said any such
thing: there is no evidence for this in the Scriptures.
Margaret Heath
Catholic Herald
(6/8/93)
Margaret Heath cannot believe that the Pope has said that animals
have souls.
The Catholic Study Circle for Animal Welfare have sent me a
leaflet in which the Pope is quoted at a "public audience" -
described no further - with remarks the leaflet conflates with the
views of Carlo Molari (Urbino University) and Mgr Canciani (who
invites animals into his church in Rome).
The Pope's apparent actual words that animals have "the breath of
life" are replaced in these other interviews with the word
"soul".
Andrew Jude Powney
(20/8/93)
Margaret Heath (Catholic Herald, 6 August) maintains
animals have no souls... If the soul manifests itself in worldly
terms as 'character' then my dog has a soul indeed. I just wish I
could be as sure of my own salvation as I am of his.
J Marmarossy
(20/8/93)
On the question of whether animals have souls; I remember an old
Anglican vicar who ran a boys' club I belonged to many years ago,
who was asked, 'Do you think animals have an afterlife?'
He replied, 'Well, it would be very dull without them, wouldn't
it?'
John Bunting
(3/9/93)
See Article:
http://www.all-creatures.org/fol/art-20090529-2.html .