Fascinating Authors

Book Review
by
John H. Manhold

Animals in Heaven? Catholics Want to Know ISBN 9781440177255, (Rising Star) iUniverse Paperback, 145 pages including 2 pages of Helpful Web Sites, 11 pages of Endnotes (which really are references to statements in the text and listed chapter by chapter), and 7 pages of Sources and References, authored by Susi Pittman.

This little book is not for everyone. It is written by a Roman Catholic layman, seemingly in part as a catharsis. The author’s husband told her, just before dying, that she should finish the book.

The theme is unabashedly a lecture on religion, and more specifically, on the tenets of the Catholic Church. “Throughout this book, there are holy insights, sacred scriptures, traditions, and divine revelations for a better understanding of the Church’s beautiful teachings on humankind and created things.” It begins with generalizations on the establishment of the universe, followed by creation of Adam and Eve, the downfall of man, creation of the ‘soul’ and its position in man, and moves on to the presence of animals who are without this feature. The next step is to review the relationship between a number of Saints and animals, e.g. St Francis, Saint John Bosco and the mysterious dog who became his protector, Saint Roch, “the Patron Saint of Dogs and Dog Lovers” and others. Then, there is progression to personal accounts of animal miracles, their position in times of grief and finally “A call to Action” where one is called upon to make a personal commitment “to become a cooperator with Jesus in a plan of redemption for all of the earth…”.

I was not sure, when beginning to read this book, where exactly it was going. However, as the theme evolved, the author made a quite acceptable case for the acceptance of animals at some level in the hereafter. She followed this theme by presenting a number of extremely touching stories of the relationship between man and animal and expanded the story with references to the fact that all of the world is God’s creation, animals included. She further emphasizes the importance of animals to God, in that He had dictated that Noah gather two of every known animal to save, and the fact that not even the fall of a sparrow would be overlooked by Him (”Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God.” [Luke 12:6]).

So, to reiterate, this quite specifically religious monograph is directed to a specific question for a specific audience, and I believe Susi Pittman has quite successfully accomplished her goal in answering the question.