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A lot of Catholics automatically assume that if a person has been nice to them, that person is "good" and is deserving of eternal life with God in heaven.
But heaven does not work like that.
People do not enter heaven simply because they are nice to us. They enter heaven because they are holy. For as it is written:
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
– John 14:6
And in another passage, it says:
I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
– Revelation 21:22–27
In the same way, our dogs do not automatically go to heaven simply because they have been nice to us.
But there is another more important reason why dogs cannot go to heaven.
Understanding the Soul
The soul is the animating principle (from Latin, anima, meaning "soul") of a living thing. This is why we talk about "animate" and "inanimate" objects.
Without a soul, a being cannot be said to have "natural life".
In other words, the soul is that spiritual component of the of a being that makes it have the characteristics of a living thing.
There are 3 types of souls:
- Vegetative soul,
- Sensitive soul, and
- Rational soul.
The vegetative soul only carries out the basic functions necessary to sustain life. This is the soul that plants have.
They eat, grow, reproduce of their kind, and die.
There isn't much spiritual activity going on here.
The sensitive soul is more advanced. It can feel.
This kind of soul is present in animals. So, dogs, cats, chickens, lizards, and rats all have sensitive souls. They can experience emotions and make decisions based on those feelings.
This is why Holy Mother Church asks us to care for them and not to cause them unnecessary pain—while maintaining an understanding of their place in relation to man.
It is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly. It is likewise unworthy to spend money on them that should as a priority go to the relief of human misery. One can love animals; one should not direct to them the affection due only to persons.
– Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2418
The rational soul is the most advanced soul. In addition to sustaining life and feeling, it is capable of having rational thought.
Man's actions, therefore, are not controlled by just his instincts and feelings. Instead, he is able to think about a situation, come to a conclusion, and then act based on that thought process, disregarding how he feels.
The Soul of a Dog
Now, only the rational soul can survive physical death.
When a flower dies, the flower completely dies, including its animating principle. Nothing of it survives the decay.
This is also true for dogs and cats.
Since there souls cannot survive death, they do not become anything after death. They do not become saints, damned, demons, angels, reincarnated (no such thing)... nothing.
They simple decay.
Unlike man who is aeviternal (having a beginning, but no end), animals and plants are temporal (having both a beginning and an end).
This is why Holy Mother Church does not offer them funeral Masses or pray for the repose of their souls.
This is also why even though we pray for their health and bless them, animals are not baptized.
There is nothing that endures after death that we would try to save.
So, when next you play with your dog, remember that this is the only life he will live. You are his entire world, the sum of all his experiences.
Give that good boy a good life!
