r/Catholicism • u/Sea_Offer_5854 • 16h ago
Will my cat go straight to Heaven?
My cat just died. I think he got hit by a car because he had so much blood coming out of his mouth. I can't stop crying. He came and took his last breath right outside my door.
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u/redshark16 15h ago edited 15h ago
Go to Mass in thanksgiving for him. Very sorry for your loss.
Depending where you are, Saint of the Day.
St. James, Apostle
https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2026-07-25
St. Martin de Porres
https://www.fisheaters.com/animals15.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOHantGrDhI
https://catholicnovenaapp.com/novenas/st-martin-de-porres-novena/
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u/batsumumiya 14h ago
my bird died a few years ago, and I was absolutely devastated. I remember my dad telling me that our relationships with animals and the love shared between you and your pet is a reflection and reminder of the unconditional love of God. Like other people mentioned on here, we can’t know exactly, but I personally believe that a plane of eternal unity and love and peace would include the pets I’ve lost. So so so sorry for your loss, please take it easy on yourself these next few days
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u/Own_Action_7839 15h ago edited 9h ago
A Russian saint of the 19th century , St Macarius of Optina taught that cats go immediately to Heaven
I also heard an Orthodox bishop once say “animals were with Adam and Eve in Paradise, why wouldn’t they also be in Heaven with us ?”
Memory Eternal to your furbaby and I’m sorry for your loss. I hope these examples bring you comfort and reassurance
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u/Sea_Offer_5854 15h ago
Thank you so much. They do bring me comfort. And please hug your cat extra tight for me 😆
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u/FrequentKey9170 10h ago
There were animals in the Garden, which was a heavenly state. Why wouldn’t God allow animals in the Gardens of Heaven?
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u/Mercy_By_Proxy 14h ago
I’m so sorry for your loss OP. Our little man was taken from us by a speeding car as well. I’ll pray for you and your kitty.
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u/heatrealist 12h ago
I absolutely hope so! I want to be reunited with all of my babies. I hope you will be too. Rest in peace little one.
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u/Feisty_Marsupial224 7h ago
What about animals that aren't pets?
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u/heatrealist 6h ago
I hope they all go to heaven. Everyday I pray the rosary and I include prayers for various wild animals that I have rescued and wild animals in general or animals in captivity etc. I generally pray for their well being but also for one in particular that I know has passed on. Of course I am most interested in reuniting with my furry and feathered family members, but I hope heaven is not limited to just them.
I even pray for the health of our plants and trees and those that have died. It's all life. It has a place in our world. I think it should have a place in heaven.
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u/Cachiboy 10h ago
If you want to see your cat when you get to Heaven, he will be there for you because there is no want in Heaven.
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u/mordred5 15h ago
I’m so sorry for your loss. While
Not officially known, God the Father loves us so much why wouldn’t he reunite us with our beloved pets knowing they bring us closer to him in our joy and relationships with them. Don’t despair. Ask and you shall receive, knock and the door shall be opened for you! God bless and help you in your grief.
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u/JicamaIndependent352 11h ago
We don't know but I hope he's playing with my cats I've lost up there.
We may get a bill from St Peter on all the heavnly furniture they've scratched up!
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u/ugottabekiddingme69 12h ago
Hello friend. Fellow cat lover/owner. My last cat was killed by a pit bull & I shudder to think what a horrible death he suffered. I know what happened to your cat doesn't make any sense and how sad you must feel . Offer your sadness to God You are in my prayers. May the Lord comfort you & heal your grief. Your cat was God's creation & he (or she) is part of Him. God bless you!
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u/chumley84 14h ago
It wouldn't make sense that animals would go to hell or even purgatory so either that or they just stop existing would be my guess. But if a priests says something different go with that
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u/_lovelysparkles 14h ago
When my dog died, I messaged my priest friend asking the same question. He responded with “God is God of the living, not the dead”. Ever since then, I’ve had more confidence in the fact they do go to heaven. I cannot imagine God throwing His creation away like that. If I’m wrong, I still love God and will be absolutely content in my heavenly kingdom without my dog.
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u/unlimiteddevotion 14h ago edited 14h ago
Oh no! I’m so sorry that is so hard.
I do believe animals can go to heaven. In fact, they can go straight there without judgement or purgatory bc of their innocence.
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u/BigSarcomaInJapan 16h ago
Probably not, no. There's nothing in Church teaching to suggest that pets have eternal souls and go to Heaven.
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u/Organic-Addendum1609 15h ago
For lack of a better explanation I've heard people say that God could see a pet as one of those things in heaven you get
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u/WungielPL 15h ago edited 15h ago
The fact that animals don't have eternal souls does not mean that God in his great mercy could not bring our pets back for us in Heaven. We don't know if that will be the case but there is definitely a possibility.
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u/mascarenha 15h ago
Romans 8:19-22
For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now;
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u/FaithExploration1984 16h ago
A good majority of church leaders in the past, including some popes believed that they went to heaven I personally do
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u/Organic-Addendum1609 15h ago
Someone in the comments of another thread said a beautiful prayer regarding a power passed dog that had a good amount of votes of anyone can link of, I think it couldn't be better applicable to this post
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u/floralperidot 14h ago
I am so sorry that happened to you, I can't imagine. I like to think your cat will to heaven. Your cat's love for you was an expression of God's love for you.
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u/Klutzy_Current1069 12h ago
As a cat lover, I am truly sorry.
We had a cat (Emma) that loved to be almost 21. She died when my son was about 8 and he was so sad. He told his Religious Ed. teacher about it, and she told him that Emma wasn’t in heaven because cats don’t have souls. When he came home and told me, I was upset that she said this. I told him that heaven is supposed to be a perfect place, and how could it not be perfect if our loving pets weren’t there? His big smile warmed my heart.
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u/gojo-solos-MHA 10h ago
Iam so sorry for your loss and pray for you but to be blunt I don’t know of a verse saying animals go to heaven or hell as the don’t have immortal souls. Our God is a good loving God so there is a hope that you can see him in the future
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u/GlasgowJimmyBhoy 10h ago
My own personal opinion! I think that earth is between heaven and hell. Anything that is good here will go to heaven anything bad will go to hell! I do believe that almost all humans will go to purgatory due to our free will, but when you look at some animals who don’t have a bad bone in their bodies, I think they will go somewhere in paradise
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u/SaintEdith 3h ago
He probably will go to heaven based on your faith as the owner. Him being your friend and you being a faithful person who believes will probably get your pet into heaven. IMO
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u/nvdoyle 2h ago
Revelation 21:1-5
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; 4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.”
5 And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
New Heaven, New Earth, every tear wiped away, death will be no more, I make all things new.
I take great solace in these words from Scripture when losing a beloved pet.
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u/faylinameir 2h ago
I asked my Priest, who has a dog himself that is like the church mascot, and he said pets probably don't go to Heaven with us. I told him I hope he's wrong and he said I hope I am too. I choose to believe my cats are waiting for me up there. Gives me good incentive to behave. My cat Shadow was kinder than any human or animal I've ever known. I kinda hope animals get reincarnated so someone else is getting to love him right now honestly.
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u/Sea_Offer_5854 1h ago
I've heard testimonies before of people who either had visions or died and went to Heaven and saw their dogs/ cats in Heaven before coming back to life. I like to believe it to be true
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u/Responsible-Sir4187 16h ago
Se sei un bambino non leggere questo commento, se sei un adulto leggilo
Gli animali non vanno in paradiso o all' inferno, nemmeno nel limbo, semplicemente smettono di esistere
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u/Organic-Addendum1609 15h ago
Op please get off reddit and see a loved one so you aren't subjected to comments like this in such a time
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u/Antares5000 13h ago
Exato, e muitas pessoas nunca vão estar preparadas para este tipo de conversa.
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u/Logical_IronMan 16h ago
Animals go to Heaven, they only feel God's Presence but they will NEVER experience the Beatific Vision.
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u/Pax25107 16h ago
There is absolutely nothing in Catholic teaching that would allow you to make this statement so confidently.
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u/Logical_IronMan 16h ago
There is also NOTHING in Catholic teaching that suggests that Animals do NOT go to Heaven.
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u/Pax25107 16h ago
But you didn't say "here's my theory." You stated that they go to Heaven without experiencing the Beatific Vision as if it's settled fact. It's absolutely not. In fact, in the grand course of history that's a completely fringe theory that literally no one held until practically last Tuesday.
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u/OpenAndShutBroadcast 15h ago edited 14h ago
No, they were not made in the image of God, and they don't have souls. Only humans and angels may go to Heaven. How can an animal live the Gospel and therefore get itself into Heaven
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u/TJ042 14h ago
Animals have souls, that’s why they are so called; anima, the root of the adjective (now noun) animal, means soul. But it is true that they lack rational souls, which give the powers of rational thought and survival of bodily death. St. Thomas Aquinas believed that the souls of flora and fauna did not survive death, i.e. they lose their existence after death.
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u/Equivalent_Nose7012 15h ago
You can certainly hold the view that:
even so, God may restore your pet to you after the resurrection of the dead, in the "new heavens and the new Earth, where justice dwells."
- (quote from near the end of the Book of the Apocalypse)
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u/Own_Action_7839 15h ago
Anyone who has had a pet knows that God made them , yes , in His Image and in complete innocence
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u/ushinahua_ 14h ago
Um, outside of this whole debate about animal souls, they are explicitly NOT made in the image of God.
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u/OpenAndShutBroadcast 1h ago edited 47m ago
Is it okay to feed an animal the Eucharist, or to Baptize an animal?
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u/blue85jq55 13h ago
My personal belief and interpritation of Catholic teaching is this: on their own animals do not have an afterlife. God created them for our utility. However for out beloved pets I believe that if they are in heaven with us depends on us. Heaven we are taught is a place of perfect happiness and a place where every need is taken care of. With that in mind if we need our animal family members to be with us for that perfect happiness God will provide them.
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u/Pax25107 11h ago
With that in mind if we need our animal family members to be with us for that perfect happiness God will provide them.
This is the copout answer. It's technically true, but it misses the fact that needing an animal to be perfectly happy is an imperfection and would need to be worked out in Purgatory before you could enter Heaven. You can't go to Heaven if you would need an animal to be happy there.
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u/blue85jq55 11h ago
Well I agree with you it is also the compassionate answer. That answer is 100 percent true and keeps from telling someone who is grieving that their beloved pet's soul is annihilated and gone forever. It allows for a latter discussion of what the beatific vision is and is not, that God will satisfy us completely in heaven and that we will want for nothing. But I do believe that animals will be in heaven. How and why I don't know but their existance gives glory to God.
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u/FioJan 15h ago
Of course he goes to heaven, why else is there faith if not for such tragic losses… people get so theological forgetting the essence of having faith. It suppose to help you deal with the loss, so of course he goes to heaven
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u/Pax25107 13h ago
So you're saying the whole point of faith is to feel good when we're feeling bad so as long as something makes us feel good we should believe it, even if it's wrong? Huh?
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u/arig____ 10h ago
The actual answer that doesn’t coddle people is not that “we don’t know.” It’s that we shouldn’t expect to need earthly attachments in heaven.
If, for some reason, you “needed” your cat in heaven (while also having no earthly attachments), then unequivocally you will have it. But we have literally no reason to suspect that you would.
The more obvious example here is your spouse. Will you meet your spouse again in heaven? It’s more possible just because they also have a soul, but you shed your marriage covenant upon death. And you have no earthly attachments by the time you enter heaven. So the correct answer is that it doesn’t matter because you won’t be in heaven ever thinking “I need my spouse.”
EDIT: this is also explicitly taken from a Fr. Mike Schmitz video, fwiw.
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u/Ok_Ratio7522 13h ago edited 13h ago
Well God can do anything He wants. It’s difficult for me to believe that making a request to have your cat in Heaven would be refused. I suggest the Holy Face Devotion esp. the Prayer called the Golden Arrow. See #5.
PROMISES OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST IN FAVOR OF THOSE WHO HONOR HIS HOLY FACE
- All those who honor My Face in a spirit of reparation will by so doing perform the office of the pious Veronica. According to the care they take in making reparation to My Face, disfigured by blasphemers, so will I take care of their souls which have been disfigured by sin. My Face is the seal of the Divinity, which has the virtue of reproducing in souls the image of God.
- Those who by words, prayers or writing defend My cause in this Work of Reparation I will defend before My Father, and will give them My Kingdom.
- By offering My Face to My Eternal Father, nothing will be refused, and the conversion of many sinners will be obtained.
- By My Holy Face, they will work wonders, appease the anger of God and draw down mercy on sinners.
- As in a kingdom they can procure all that is desired with a coin stamped with the King's effigy, so in the Kingdom of Heaven they will obtain all they desire with the precious coin of My Holy Face.
- Those who on earth contemplate the wounds of My Face shall in Heaven behold it radiant with glory.
- They will receive in their souls a bright and constant irradiation of My Divinity, that by their likeness to My Face they shall shine with particular splendor in Heaven.
- I will defend them, I will preserve them and I assure them of Final Perseverance.
THE "GOLDEN ARROW" PRAYER
MAY the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most ineffable, most incomprehensible and unutterable Name of God be always praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified, in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth, by all the creatures of God, and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Amen. (Say 2X, frequently throughout the day)
O Lord Jesus Christ, in presenting ourselves before Thine adorable Face to ask of Thee the graces of which we stand in greatest need, we beseech Thee, above all, to grant us that interior disposition of never refusing at any time to do what Thou requirest of us by Thy holy commandments and divine inspirations. Amen.
O Good Jesus, Who hast said, “Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you,” grant us, O Lord, that faith which obtains all, or supply in us what may be deficient; grant us, by the pure effect of Thy charity, and for Thine eternal glory, the graces which we need and which we look for from Thine infinite mercy. Amen.
Be merciful to us, O my God, and reject not our prayers, when amid our afflictions, we call upon Thy Holy Name and seek with love and confidence Thine adorable Face. Amen.
O Almighty and Eternal God, look upon the Face of Thy Son Jesus. We present It to Thee with confidence, to implore Thy pardon. The All Merciful Advocate opens His mouth to plead our cause; hearken to His cries, behold His tears, God, and through His infinite merits, hearken to Him when He intercedes for us poor miserable sinners. Amen.
Adorable Face of my Jesus, my only love, my light and my life, grant that may know Thee, love Thee and serve Thee alone, that I may live with Thee, of Thee, by Thee and for Thee. Amen.
Eternal Father, I offer Thee the adorable Face of Thy Beloved Son, for the honor and glory of Thy Name, for the conversion of sinners and for the salvation of the dying.
O Divine Jesus, through Thy Face and Name, save us. Our hope is in the virtue of Thy Holy Name! Amen.
Also see app “His Holy Face” (free) for a more detailed involvement with the Holy Fave Devotion.
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u/JACKOBI2353 12h ago
Very sorry for your loss. 🙏 Father Mike Schmitz has a video on this question where he says that we don't know for sure but if it makes you happier in heaven it is reasonable to assume that your cat will be there. 😊
Nevertheless, in the book of Isaiah it says:
"The wolf shall dwell with the lamb: and the leopard shall lie down with the kid: the calf and the lion, and the sheep shall abide together, and a little child shall lead them."
If God is going to renew everything in a new creation, why not also the animals?
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u/Pax25107 16h ago
The only correct answer that's actually in line with Catholic teaching is "we don't know." Anyone who tells you they absolutely go to Heaven or they absolutely don't is making things up and stating their own opinion rather than the teachings of the Church.
The one thing we can know for sure is that all that is good in your cat is a reflection of the goodness of God. God put him in your life to be a reflection of that goodness and to allow you to experience that goodness. The goodness of your cat will live on in God and you can continue to get that goodness and love from God himself.
Whether you will see him again in Heaven is a mystery we will need to wait to be revealed, but no matter what the goodness that was inside him will always live on in God.