It is becoming increasingly clear that Cool Pope "Francis" (a nickname)—though he is certainly cool and wacky and generally chill—is just making stuff up as he goes along. Do dogs go to heaven? Sure, why not?

The cool Pope is known for things like dissing capitalism and being okay with porn and generally being the type of Pope who is ready to rap with you about how ganjah was found growing on the grave of Solomon. Now, the way the Catholic church has generally worked is, it's a big deal for the Pope to say something is or is not holy and shit like that—sometimes they argue over these things for hundreds of years! But cool Pope is casting all that aside in favor of just, you know, freestyling off the top of the dome, about religious issues.

Historically Catholics have held that animals do not have souls. Cool? Certainly not. So the other day when the cool Pope met some kid whose dog had died, he stone cold told this kid, "Paradise is open to all of God's creatures." How cool is that???? From the New York Times:

Charles Camosy, an author and professor of Christian ethics at Fordham University, said it was difficult to know precisely what Francis meant, since he spoke "in pastoral language that is not really meant to be dissected by academics." But asked if the remarks had caused a new debate on whether animals have souls, suffer and go to heaven, Mr. Camosy said, "In a word: absolutely."

I'll tell you what he meant: "I like dogs and I'm the Pope so dogs are holy now. Deal with it." Cool Pope's style is cool as hell. Just be careful when he starts making pronouncements to the ladies in the club about God's condemnation of wearing panties, etc.

[Photo: AP]