So, I read the article and checked its references. Here's what I found.
Nonhuman Animals May Qualify as Persons
Horan began by connecting his suggested openness to the personhood of nonhuman animals with the Eco-encyclical of Pope Francis, Laudato Si'. There, Francis makes the point in the letter's second paragraph that human creatures are composed of the same materials as planet Earth itself.
As a result, the pope suggests, western culture's anthropocentrism is misplaced. That is, our acting as if humans were the summit of creation with other creatures reduced to mere objects relegated to our service and consumption is highly questionable. It overlooks the fact of our shared sameness. According to Francis, that oversight represents one of the major reasons for our present environmental crisis.
According to Laudato Si', nonhuman creatures also possess intrinsic dignity and goodness. Like humans, they are objects of God's creative love and concern.
But are they persons?
That question has impelled theologians such as Horan, St. Joseph Sister Elizabeth Johnson of Fordham University, and Eric Daryl Meyer of Carroll College to reconsider our culture's attitudes towards nonhuman creation in the light of what's currently known not only from theology, but from science and reason as well.
Their findings support the position that humans are not alone in the signature human function of meaning-making. Nonhuman animals, they observe, also engage in such activity. They show evidence of intelligence, emotion, moral reasoning, relationship-building, and even religious experience.
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