I have just finished Devil’s Cave by Martin Walker. It was a warm cosy book and a good crime thriller but with a bit too much food and cooking featured for my taste. I won’t be rushing out to buy another of his books, but would definitely read more of them if I stumbled over them by chance. Note cat hair on book.
Said cat hair came from Catrick, who was cuddling in the crook of my arm as I read
These two pages really stayed with me:
I had exactly the same experience as a child. I grew up in a staunchly devout Catholic household and attended a Catholic convent school for 12 years. My parents and the nuns told me very early that animals could not go to heaven because they had no souls. I have loved animals since I had the capacity to love and have had pets constantly since I was 3 years old. As a child I did not want to believe that such creatures could not join us in heaven. It damaged any potential I had for deep faith. Which is quite ironic because Pope Francis (who was amazing in my opinion) comforted a child grieving her dog by saying One day, we will see our animals again in the eternity of Christ“. While not a formal declaration of Catholic doctrine, this was taken to mean the total opposite of what I was taught.
This part in the book really spoke to me. I know it is a fictional tale, but how many people turned away from Catholicism due to that? For me, my lack of faith and lapse is complicated (arising mostly because of how many of my devout family members suffered before dying one by one over 18 months), but animals did play a factor. I don’t want to go anywhere where there are no animals.
Janet, I’m Catholic, and I want to see my pets in Heaven. I am counting heavily on the Rainbow Bridge.
I feel exactly the same as you! I was also raised a Catholic although my parents were more or less atheists but I was baptized and I did my first communion. What bothers me about Catholicism and religion overall is the lack of direct line to God. Why should I confess my sins to a person who also has the ability to sin? What makes them better than me? And regarding animal’s souls, I believe they have a soul. Anyone who’s spent a little bit of time with an animal can just see it. And after all, aren’t we all God’s creatures?
Janet I was also brought up a devout catholic until I learned to think for myself it was hammered into us that animals had no souls. I cannot believe that, if there is a god, he would not have animals around him. The main reason I turned away from the church though was because of all the reports of choir and altar boys being targeted by priests. I have seen too many people being all holier-than-thou for the hour spent on a Sunday at church who would have affairs, cheat, lie and kill after mass because confessing their sins gave them absolution to go and sin again. Also Hitler was a staunch Catholic who was never excommunicated even after all his many sins against humanity were discovered.