This week the media exploded with the news that fan favorite Pope Francis had opened the pearly gates to the entirety of the animal kingdom. According to initial reports Francis had been comforting a small boy over the death of his dog, when he declared, “One day we will see our animals again in eternity of Christ. Paradise is open to all God’s creatures.” Even The New York Times ran the story on the front page.

This is the progressive Francis we all know and love: he’s willing to talk about the divorced and remarried receiving communion and he boldly extends “all dogs go to heaven” beyond its customary canine-exclusive borders.

Except Francis didn’t actually say this. As David Gibson revealed this week, it was a different Pope—Pope Paul VI, who died in 1978—who gave the young boy the soothing pep talk. That’s the Francis effect: he gets the credit for every nice thing a Pope has ever said.

But whether we’re talking about Paul VI or Francis, Popes are animal lovers. Like his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI—who had to be told not to bring stray cats (and their blessed fleas) into his Vatican apartments—Francis has a soft spot for strays. He was delighted when he recently received two donkeys—Thea and Noah—as Christmas gifts from the Italian company Eurolactic Italia. Francis is a donkey milk connoisseur and donkey’s milk is a non-hipster alternative to human and cow milk.

Product placement aside, the idea that animals go to heaven raises a whole host of interesting questions for Thea and Noah. Will his donkeys continue to serve as beverage dispensers for the Holy Father in heaven? Will there be a heavenly dairy industry?

Pope Paul VI’s comment seems to imply that we see “our animals” again in heaven. Good news for Thea and Noah, no doubt. But does this means that animal ownership continues in heaven? Don’t animals get to choose who they hang out with?

What about the, er, smell in the celestial menagerie? Will these resurrected animals be house-trained and know to exit the pearly gates before doing their business? This may be less of a concern than it seems. In his City of God, Augustine was quite clear that in the hereafter humans would no longer need bathroom breaks. We can probably extend that to animals as well.