Pope Francis tells boy whose dog had died that heaven is open to all

[Feral Child]

18. This is contrary to church dogma

(please don't think I meant a pun).

Protestants of the evangelical fetish absolutely deny that animals have "souls". It reinforces their need to deny evolution, since that reduces humans to a less-than-special species.

I'm not a student of the fallacies of religion but I've never heard any priest or minister suggest that animals have "souls". I think this Pope, in his normal attention-seeking strategy of seeming reasonable and humane, has cynically repudiated dogma with this statement. Catholics can certainly correct me, and I'll respect their response (as valid only on dogma, not reality, of course).

I'm absolutely certain about fundamentalist evangelicals, though. I've suffered politely through their rants often enough to realize that they consider all animals, the entire earth, actually, as their special fief based on an extrapolation of the Genesis pronouncement that their god has given them the planet to rule over.

At any rate, evangelical "salvation" can only be achieved by recognition and acceptance of their imagined messiah, and I don't think my mixed-breed rat terrier Jake is capable of making that leap of faith.

I'll pare down my usual loquaciousness (which many seem to find offensive) thus:

I think this insincere and camera-loving Pope staged a "Mission Accomplished" moment, without the additional cod-piece. Pure marketing tripe.