Now I'm starting to wonder. I searched 'mcveigh's last words' and this comment and AP story was posted on one site. No mention of Fr. Smith.
Below is a story published by The Associated Press the day after McVeigh's execution on Monday, June 11, 2001. Most Americans were probably well-versed on McVeigh's defiant attitude and profession of agnosticism in the weeks preceding his execution. I will let the following article speak for itself. We won't know until we enter eternity ourselves whether McVeigh did indeed accept Christ. But the point I've made before--and that I will make again and again until it is grasped--is that anything is possible with Christ (Phil. 4:13). Anyone who tells you otherwise doesn't have a clue what he's talking about.
By RICHARD N. OSTLING, AP Religion Writer
Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh left one final mystery behind before his execution: Did he ask forgiveness for his sins while meeting a priest in private, even while refusing to express public remorse?
McVeigh was brought up as a Roman Catholic, and saw a priest in the final hours before he received a lethal injection Monday. There could hardly be a greater contrast between the words he issued upon his death and those of Roman Catholicism's so-called "last rites."
Rather than uttering last words, McVeigh released a handwritten copy of the poem "Invictus" with its defiant conclusion: "I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul."
But Monday morning about 4 a.m., before being taken to the death chamber at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., the prison warden noted that a Catholic chaplain was available if McVeigh wanted last rites. According to his attorneys, McVeigh said "Sure, send him in."
The chaplain, the Rev. Frank Roof, then met with McVeigh. Roof is declining media interview requests, the prison said Tuesday. The Indianapolis archdiocese issued no statement and referred all questions to the prison.
The Rev. Ron Ashmore, a priest who knew McVeigh and whose parish is near the prison, said it's his understanding following talks with a McVeigh attorney that McVeigh received the sacrament of anointing the sick but not the sacrament of penance. The McVeigh attorneys were not at their offices Tuesday afternoon and could not be reached for comment.
Penance, also known as the sacrament of reconciliation, is the normal means through which Catholics ask God's forgiveness for their sins. However, forgiveness is also possible outside of penance under certain circumstances.
Both penance and anointing are involved in what Catholics commonly call the "last rites," though the church does not officially use that term and considers it confusing.
To Ashmore "the very request" for anointing "is a request for the Lord's mercy and forgiveness."
Ashmore, who exchanged letters with McVeigh in recent weeks, said the man who killed 168 people in the bombing six years ago "had reconciled himself to God and was beginning to express his sensitivity to the pain and suffering of the people of Oklahoma."
"He was remorseful for the death and the pain, but not for going to war against the United States," Ashmore said.
In Ashmore's understanding, the sacrament of anointing would absolve the recipient of his sins.
In anointing, normally given to seriously ill patients or those at the point of death, the priest places oil on the recipient's forehead and hands, saying "May the Lord who frees you from sin save you and raise you up."
Associated Press Writer Ken Kusmer in Indianapolis contributed to this story.
The last time I checked, McVeigh was white, incarcerated, and living in rural Oklahoma before his arrest at age 27 (and in his thirties when executed).
It is my understanding that McVeigh did receive the sacrament of penance before his death. I read somewhere that Father Roof confirmed this, but that was the only thing he ever said. He has never spoken in public about it, as most priests should not. I wish I could remember where I read that, unfortunately I cannot.
Did you ever consider that the AP story could be wrong?
The AP does have a liberal bias often times.