Francis by Patrick J. Marrin for January 20, 2022

Amen.

As someone else said, “If there ain’t no dogs in heaven, I ain’t going.”

All our dogs (God’s creatures) have been rescues. I will admit that we do run up vet bills to keep them healthy.

We inherited our current dog from her owner when her owner died. This dog has outlived both of her previous owners. We love the dog, but we are hoping to break that trend. She’s now 15 and still feisty.

there are WAY too many people – a few more critters can only help

I like Francis, but that was rather fancy talk from a man who doesn’t have any children of his own.

Yeah, much as I appreciate most of what he says, that was a particular clunker and really just petty, not to mention terribly insensitive to the folks who wanted but can’t have kids, or are past childbearing, or parents who have tragically lost their children. Isn’t there enough love in the world to love kids and pets? I am afraid it was a bit of a reveal of a “senior” moment from him. Very uncharitable and uncharacteristic.

The Pope’s comments were about married couples who have pets instead of children. Leo, as a celibate brother, isn’t part of a married couple who is having pets instead of children, so the comments don’t apply.

…And Big Frankie was last seen exiting a record store, it’s complicated.

I believe that advocating an increase in the world population of humans is poor stewardship, so I hope that’s not what Pope Francis “really” meant.

I’m not 100% behind Francis’s position on this issue, but I’ll agree with him on one big point: Pets are wonderful, but they aren’t people, and they aren’t your children. As someone stated last week when this came up, “When you have seen places where people are treated like animals, it is shocking to come to a place where animals are treated like people.”

I’ll leave it to the psychologists to decide whether devoting “parental affection” on animals is psychologically unsound, but if perhaps it’s “spiritually unsound” then surely Francis has an obligation to speak up.

Some people have the need to take care of other living things: we plant gardens, feed birds and have pets. For children, it is a learning experience; it teaches them responsibility and a respect for life.

At our stage in life, my wife and I cannot commit to another child. We re almost to the point where we may not outlive another dog.

People are mean enough to dogs as it is. No need to give them any more reasons.