Animals to be given same rights as Christians? Activists storm church with ridiculous demand

'We entered the church in silence but they became aggressive and ripped up by banner.'

Animal rights activists claimed animals have souls and demanded their pets be allowed to attend Mass.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - According to The Times, the activists congregated outside Santa Maria della Cima in Genzano, Italy.

The entire fiasco began when 47-year-old parishioner Roxana Grasso was told she wasn't allowed to take her Pomeranian, Snoopy, to prayers.

She told animal activist group Animalisti Italiani: "I believe that animals have souls, are on par with humans and should be blessed in church, but other worshippers yelled at me and the priest pushed me and threw me out."

Shortly after the event, about twenty protesters met at the church with signs and banners reading: "Animals have a soul - they will go to Heaven too."

According to Italian law, the protestors can face up to two years in prison for disturbing a religious service, but still, they persisted and claimed all animals have souls.

By Catholic teachings, animals do not have souls.

Though this is not directly explained in the Catechism, the Church says animals, much like plants, lack a moral sense and do not sin. They simply "are." They cannot understand anything beyond the physical and are unable to "believe" in anything.

Despite what the Church says, many still debate whether animals have souls and, in December 2014, Pope Francis consoled a child who lost his dog. The Pontiff told him he would be reunited with his pet in heaven, saying: "One day, we will see our animals again in the eternity of Christ. Paradise is open to all of God's creatures."

This opened the floodgates, and many questioned whether the Pontiff's words implied animals do have souls.

Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest, said: "God loves and Christ redeems all of creation. [The Pope] said paradise is open to all creatures. That sounds pretty clear to me."

Animal rights activists responded as well, stating: "If the pope did mean that all animals go to heaven, then the implication is that animals have a soul. And if that's true, then we ought to seriously consider how we treat them. We have to admit that these are sentient beings, and they mean something to God."

Some claimed the Pope's possibly unintentional endorsement of animals having souls could lead Catholics to stop eating meat while others claimed the Pontiff's words were merely "misinterpreted."

Dave Warner, a spokesman for the National Pork Producers Council, quoted Genesis to say Pope Francis' words: Certainly do not mean that slaughtering and eating animals is a sin. [Man was given] dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on earth.

"While that 'dominion' means use for human benefit, it also requires stewardship - humane care and feeding - something all farmers who raise animals practice every day of every year."

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