Frankly, I’m surprised the priest even allowed a mass for the young man. I don’t know if the reference to heaven was in the sermon or the homily and what the context was.
This school has taken some real hits over the past couple of years. One of the football players died of cancer 2 years ago, it was a prolonged illness. His final wish was to go to the Super Bowl but he was too sick to travel. Make-A-Wish and a regional retailer donated a scoreboard to the school in his honor.
Temperance is a small community where the football teams’s “trademark” is “family”. The coach has a pretty decent record and has managed to turn out some good teams without a lot of “talent”.
According to a local report, the family met with the priest and discussed the content of the homily. They maintain the priest acted maliciously and now want the priest not only removed from the parish, but removed as a priest.
They are saying the priest ruined the funeral by his mentioning “suicide” multiple times and not allowing the family an opportunity to speak. They told the priest he was not welcome at the graveside services.
This suicide has been tough on the community. The cost in lives being ruined/affected is growing daily.
The family is claiming a lot.
It’s their words against his, but to demand the removal of the priest because he did something they didn’t like, smacks of a very self-centered situation.
Unless the priest was demonstratively wrong, the family is not behaving in a way that is honorable.