I Think Pope Francis Needs A Pet In His Life

I LIKE POPE FRANCIS who has been so much better a pastor and moral figure than his pastorally disastrous immediate predecessors,  a Pope who has tried to implement the non-centralized view of the Catholic Church that JPII and Benedict XVI thwarted as they sought to centralize power in the Vatican and the hierarchy staffed with their hand-picked hacks and sycophants.  

I especially like the Encyclicals of Francis, especially Laudato Si which, if we have a future, may be the most important document ever issued by any Pope in the history of the papacy.  And Fratelli Tutti

But I profoundly disagree with parts of what he said about people who have pets who don't have children.  For a man who never married and who, presumably, has no children and who, likewise, administers a bureaucracy where married parents have little to no position or say, I don't think Francis was speaking out of his experience gained expertise on the topic. 

In one way it reminds me of an old friend of mine who died last year, my last direct link to anyone with a remembered experience from before WWII, who used to assert that People who cared about their pets didn't care about People, that pets used up all their concern.  My experience of pet owners is the opposite, I think people who care about animals are MORE LIKELY to care about People as well.  I think People who are indifferent to animals are more likely to be indifferent to People, too. 

I liked this article chiding Pope Francis on the issues of those who have animals as friends, suggesting that he might benefit from taking an animal into his home.  You're never too old to learn.   One of the things cited to back up what the author of the article says would be familiar to Francis. 

 One of the great insights of his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si' is that the natural world exists as an end in itself, a source of delight to its creator. It is in extending ourselves to care for the nonhuman other — yes, even dogs and cats! — that we enact a care for creation that celebrates the creator. "Each organism, as a creature of God, is good and admirable in itself," Francis wrote, and for some of us it is easier to start to come to that spiritual awareness with the nonhuman companions with whom we share hearth and home.

It is ironic that the first, perhaps only Pope to take the name and example of the great Saint Francis to have made such a wrong step on the topic of caring for animals.  He made the statement at a general audience on January 5th, I don't know if it was part of a planned statement or if it was a spontaneous thought that went through his head and out of his mouth.  I suspect it was unplanned and I would bet that if he had a chance to either take it back or to make a more nuanced statement he would have said it better and no such article would be needed.  I hope he makes friends with a cat or dog or some other animal soon, I think he needs a friend like that.  I've learned a lot from both species, as well as the others I've lived with.   People have a lot to learn about morality and fidelity from dogs, our moral superiors in almost every way.  Those I live with taught me more about both than at least three of the Popes of my lifetime.