We've had a few items discussing the issue of animals. For example, do pets go to an afterlife?

It's an interesting question that we of course are not fit to answer (nor is anyone; we'll all know one day!)

It does seem obvious that animals are important to God or He would not have saved them on the Ark (and would not have created them to begin with).

It's a shame, how we have gravitated to such vitriolic extremes that those who support animal rights often also promote contraception and abortion (to limit the human population, and "save" the environment) while those who fight abortion (pro-lifers, among whom we belong) too often consider the defense of animals and the ecology as a sign of liberalism (or even heresy). The thinking seems to be: Who cares about animals; who cares if there are only a couple thousand gorillas left; why care about whales when human babies are aborted, we are asked?

Perhaps we can be concerned both for the human unborn (obviously, above all else) and the animals God has created.

The last three Popes -- John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI (the "Green Pope"), and Pope Francis (who is reportedly writing an encyclical on the environment) -- have unanimously expressed concern both about abortion and abuse of Creation.

Remember a guy named Saint Francis? (He was able to communicate even with a wolf. At Assisi, live wild doves are often resting in the hands of a statue of this animal-loving saint. Rest assured that animals are living creatures -- not things.)

Are there animals in the supernatural?

Well, there are those horses in the Book of Revelation. There is the donkey that spoke (in Numbers 22:28).

Sometimes, cruelty to animals is a precursor to violence against humans (many serial killers started out this way; beware the "thrill kill").

Some claim -- actually, a good number -- they have seen manifestations or even apparitions of deceased pets.

"People returning from a close encounter with death have reported seeing their deceased pets alive and well on the 'other side,'" notes a book. "Nothing surprised or delighted them more than being greeted in the next world by their domestic animals or pets. Spouses and parents were sometimes expected, but Rover racing around in circles was a bonus."

Would anyone deny that God is that merciful?

"I looked across at my husband who sat on the settee reading," said one person who'd had a Dalmatian called Lola. "She was so clear and alive that at first I couldn't comprehend that the dog lounging beside him, leaning on his arm, was Lola. I don't know how long I watched. She looked happy and well but somehow I sensed that if I spoke or moved she would disappear. So the first hint of anything untoward to my husband was when he glanced up and saw not Lola but the tears on my face. As I tried to explain the image faded but I was ecstatic."

Later, there was another occurrence when, supposedly, if we accept this sort of matter, she saw her husband pass a bedroom door during the night preceded by a bouncing Dalmatian -- not clear, more a shining form dancing past, but unmistakable, at least to her, that it was Lola's bounce.

Perhaps most interesting, allegedly, was when her husband later was in the hospital for a lung operation; a friend who went to visit him told her "how astonished she'd been to see the ward had a resident dog.

"Puzzled, I asked her to elaborate and she told me upon entering the ward she'd seen a dog lying on my husband's bed with its head on his chest. As she approached the dog jumped off and walked away without looking.

"I assured her that dogs were certainly not allowed in a cardiothoracic unit where the fight against infection is so crucial. Knowing the answer before I posed the question, I asked anyway, 'What sort of dog was it?' 'Oh,' she replied, 'it was a lovely spotty dog like those of yours. A Dalmatian."

For our discernment.

[Note also: Michael Brown retreats: Philadelphia-New Jersey]

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