When Pope Francis recently remarked about the decision by some couples to raise pets in lieu of children, mainstream journalists took notice and the reaction was swift. Why, some commentators wondered, did the pope seem to have it out for cats and dogs?
It was around this time that I noticed that some bishops and priests occasionally tweet about their own pets. (I am certain the timing was a coincidence; I do not think they were subtweeting the pope.) Given the news of the alleged papal puppy putdown, I was curious if there is a spiritual component to raising an animal. (And given my ongoing efforts in raising a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy, named Wibby after a 10th-century Swiss saint, the Benedictine nun Wiborada, I had a personal stake in this assignment as well.)
Bishop Daniel Flores, who heads the Diocese of Brownsville, Tex., tweets fairly regularly about his 1-year-old Husky, Curiosa. The name has several meanings, Bishop Flores said. One, because she is a puppy, she is curious about the world. Plus, she acts rather curiously in the eyes of her owner. Though he cannot quite put his finger on it, he said there is some kind of connection between pets and their owners.
Given the news of the alleged papal puppy putdown, I was curious if there is a spiritual component to raising an animal.
“I think it’s kind of a connection to creatures that are different than we are and that still inspire a kind of affection,” Bishop Flores said.
Plus, caring for a dog, he said, reminds people of the Christian call to be better stewards of all creation, a teaching that has been taken up with gusto by the pope.
“There’s a responsibility there,” he said. “You have to take care of an animal and make sure that it’s treated well.”
Probably a close approximation of the angle from which the dog tries to interpret me being on a Zoom call.
— Amigo de Frodo (@bpdflores) February 1, 2022
Sometimes it sort of looks that way to me too. pic.twitter.com/cJV5sjkLKQ
Bishop Flores said he has been responsible for caring for pets since he was a child, including a pet iguana he had as a kid who, he admits, “didn’t want to do very much but eat and sit on the branch.” Still, having the lizard inspired him to contemplate “iguana-ness” and invited him to consider a world that was different from his own. (In addition to rearing Curiosa, Bishop Flores also keeps a tank of tropical fish, who, he notes, are totally dependent on him to survive.)
Like many people, Bishop Flores adopted a puppy during the height of the pandemic, when social outings and the opportunities to connect with others had dried up. She provided some company at home.
Caring for a dog, Bishop Flores said, reminds people of the Christian call to be better stewards of all creation, a teaching that has been taken up with gusto by the pope.
Plus, Curiosa has, at times, forced Bishop Flores to get out of his own head. He talks to his dog when he is alone in the house, primarily in Spanish, and notices when she thinks he is too wrapped up in his work.
“She’ll drop the ball at my feet and say, you know, we’ve kind of lost sight, which is probably true, because I probably spend too much of my time at my desk or pacing around trying to figure out problems,” he said. “And sometimes you just kind of have to let that go and just go out and throw the ball.”
“That’s a very healthy human thing,” he added.
Those kinds of emotional and physical benefits of pet ownership have been well known for years. The American Kennel Club reported on a number of studies showing the benefits of owning a dog, including reducing stress, decreasing loneliness and even making humans happier.
That all rings true to Father Paul Keller, C.M.F., a Clarentian priest who ministers at the Saint Paul Catholic Newman Center in Fresno, Calif.
A number of studies show the benefits of owning a dog, including reducing stress, decreasing loneliness and even making humans happier.
He said he appreciates how his dog Cooper greets him at the end of a long day and hops up onto the couch with him while he watches television, offering psychological and emotional boosts. Plus, Cooper forces him to contemplate his surroundings more regularly, including the trees in the church courtyard where he takes the dog for walks.
“I’ll see the very first bud that comes on the tree, and then over a period of two days, all of the buds have blossomed, and you see the leaves fall, and the leaves come out, and I feel connected to this peaceful, wonderful monitoring of the planet, growth and the seasons,” he said. “That’s not directly connected to the dog, but I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t have the dog.”
And having a dog at the parish helps in attracting college students to the church, who have made Cooper something of a parish mascot.
Bishop Flores and Father Keller are certainly not alone when it comes to finding something special and even spiritual in a relationship between animals and their owners.
A group of Norbertine sisters in California raise and sell Labrador puppies to help support their community but also see in the puppies an inspiration for deepening their faith.
Despite his love for dogs and other animals, Bishop Flores said he understands what motivated the pope’s comments.
“I like to use them (the Labradors) as my inspiration for spiritual childhood,” Sister Mary Agnes told the Tehachapi News in 2019. “Nothing ever gets them down, and they are pretty happy-go-lucky all the time. They are so loyal to their people, and they are happy with life in general. I think that’s why people like them.”
The Monks of New Skete are an Eastern Orthodox monastic community based in New York who authored one of the best-selling training books for new puppies, The Art of Raising a Puppy. Like the Norbertine Sisters, they see spiritual lessons in raising animals.
“One of the things that has continually struck us in working with dogs is the lessons they can teach us about ourselves and the window they can provide to how magical and wonderful life is,” Brother Christopher Savage told the blog Animal Fair.
Despite his love for dogs and other animals, Bishop Flores said he understands what motivated the pope’s comments. Human beings, he said, have to prioritize, with love and affection for fellow human beings taking precedence over pets.
“In Spanish we say, ‘primero, lo primero,’ you need to do the first things first,” he said. “You take care of your children, you take care of your parents, and you also take care of other responsibilities. But there is an order to that. And I think the pope was suggesting that maybe we have a little bit of a disequilibrium if we don’t think about our responsibilities to our fellow human beings and put all of our focus upon what we get out of having a pet.”
Bishop Flores said he avoids humanizing dogs because “dogs aren’t humans.” But he said there is some kind of connection between pets and their owners and thinks it can inspire people to better care for all kinds of creatures.
“Creation is a beautiful thing,” he said. “And I think that’s also part of what the pope is saying in ‘Laudato Si’,’ we have a responsibility to the creatures around us.”
