She shouldn’t have filed a lawsuit but the priest shouldn’t have said that either. I had a friend whose husband committed suicide (because he was mentally unbalanced and under the influence of drugs at the time) and the priest did the same thing. So of course everybody in the church is staring at her and wondering what she did wrong, although he had threatened to kill himself on their very first day of marriage and she had kept him alive through many such episodes for years. He wouldn’t get treatment.
If this priest didn’t feel he should bury this man, he simply should have refused it and given it to another priest or another church. The deceased can’t change what he’s done, he’s suffering whatever he has to suffer, and the only thing a homily like this damages is the surviving family.
And where was the Church when this guy was having problems? My friend’s husband was actually told by a VII priest not to go to confession so often (he went once a week or once a month, like most good Catholics) and just go once a year. So they had no contact with him, but I’m sure one of the things he had confessed was suicidal thoughts and he got help for it. So clergy, no matter how orthodox, don’t punish the survivors for your own failure.
Current Official Roman position:
Suicide
2280 Everyone is responsible for his life before God who has given it to him.
It is God who remains the sovereign Master of life.
We are obliged to accept life gratefully and preserve it for his honor and the salvation of our souls.
We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us.
It is not ours to dispose of.
2281 Suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his life.
It is gravely contrary to the just love of self.
It likewise offends love of neighbor because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity with family, nation, and other human societies to which we continue to have obligations.
Suicide is contrary to love for the living God.
2282 If suicide is committed with the intention of setting an example, especially to the young, it also takes on the gravity of scandal.
Voluntary co-operation in suicide is contrary to the moral law.
Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide.
2283 We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. the Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives.
Really? by what wild stretch of your imagination is that true? The doctrine is straightforward - suicide is murder and disturbed or not, the individual himself is responsible for their sins, not a priest. The priests are available and will help any way they can but in the end, it's between that individual and God, nobody else.
Given the fact that you can rationalize excuses so well and blame doctrine, the clergy - anyone except the one who murdered himself, you must be a Democrat.
Six posts before a freeper who can think
Well done