All dogs go to heaven, at least they do according to the leader of the Catholic Church.
Pope Francis, the charismatic pontiff, said during a recent weekly Vatican address that animals go to heaven, The Guardian reported.
"The holy scripture teaches us that the fulfillment of this wonderful design also affects everything around us," the 77-year-old pope said according to the newspaper. "What lies ahead...is therefore a new creation."
"Heaven is open to all creatures, and there [they] will be vested with the joy and love of God, without limits," Pope Francis said according to The Dodo.
Catholicism does not place humans in the same category as animals, with mankind being made in God's image and animals here for the good of humanity, The Guardian noted. But Pope Francis is not the first pontiff to give hope to people who have lost beloved pets.
Pope John Paul II once said animals have a "divine breath," according to The Dodo.
Pope Francis' predecessor Pope Benedict XVI , however, wasn't so accepting of the idea.
"For other creatures, who are not called to eternity, death just means the end of existence on Earth," Benedict XVI said in 2008, The Guardian reported.
Other religious experts also expressed doubt over the current pope's comments.
"We will say that there will be a continuity between this world and the joyful one of the future, [but also] a transformation," Gianni Colzani, theology professor at Rome's Pontifical Urbaniana University, told The Guardian.
"It is the balance between the two things that we are not in a position to determine. For that reason, I think we shouldn't make [Pope Francis] say more than he says."
This isn't the first time Pope Francis has sparked debate with statements considerably liberal for a pope -- he believes that women should play a more prominent role in the church and that the church should adopt a more accepting stance on homosexuality.
