Posted on 08/27/2019 2:14:29 PM PDT by ebb tide
SEATTLE (ChurchMilitant.com) - Days before a Seattle man planned to marry his same-sex partner and kill himself, a Jesuit priest led the entire parish in a final blessing of him.
After a diagnosis of cancer in 2018 and one round of chemotherapy, Robert Fuller picked May 10, 2019, as the day he was going to die and began planning a party where he would marry his same-sex partner then kill himself.
An Associated Press report chronicling his last days quoted Fuller as saying, "Why should I suffer? I'm totally at peace with this."
Fuller also said he wanted to be an example of how assisted suicide works to others around the country.
Fr. Quentin Dupont with Fr. James Martin
On May 5, the Sunday before Fuller died, he attended Mass and received Holy Communion at St. Therese Catholic Church in Seattle. Jesuit priest Fr. Quentin Dupont led the parish, including the children who had just received their first Holy Communion, to give Fuller a blessing.
Father Dupont was ordained in 2014 by the Society of Jesus in California.
According to the report, "St. Therese Parish was known for accommodating a range of beliefs" and "Fuller's decision was widely known and accepted among the parishioners."
Saint Therese's choir director, Kent Stevenson, explained, "It was hard to even cry because he was so forthcoming and so sober about it."
Stevenson said Fuller was a lector during Mass and sometimes delivered insightful or funny remarks off the cuff after the Scripture readings.
Free clip from CHURCH MILITANT Premium
Church Militant reached out to the archdiocese of Seattle, and Abps. J. Peter Sartain and Paul Etienne, the ordinary and coadjutor of the archdiocese of Seattle, responded with a statement on the sanctity of life.
The statement said, "The Associated Press story about Mr. Fuller is of great concern to the Archbishops because it may cause confusion among Catholics and others who share our reverence for human life."
The Catholic Church does not support suicide in any form, including medically assisted suicide.Tweet
They claim at the time the photo was taken, parish leadership was not aware of Fuller's intentions.
"That morning, the priest in the photograph was told Mr. Fuller was dying and wanted the blessing of the faith community," the statement explained. "When these plans were made known, the pastor met with Mr. Fuller to discuss the sacred gift of human life and how we are called to respect and revere that gift as disciples of Jesus."
The archbishops clarified that "all life is a gift from God" made in the image and likeness of God: "This is why we protect and promote the sanctity of life in all of its stages."
"Based on this teaching and concerns for human life and the common good, the Catholic Church does not support suicide in any form, including medically assisted suicide," they concluded.
Washington state passed the Washington Death with Dignity Act on Nov. 4, 2008. The law allows terminally ill adults with less than six months left to live to request lethal doses of medication to end their lives.
Since 2009, when the Death with Dignity Act took effect, 1,622 people have died at their own hands. Following the trend in other states and countries, the number of people requesting lethal drugs increases annually.
In 2018, on average, 21 people have killed themselves each month.
The reasons given for their choice to end their lives were primarily the loss of autonomy, being less able to engage in activities to make life enjoyable and the loss of dignity. A little over half of those who ended their lives were concerned with being a burden to others.
Washington law also forbids coroners from listing the cause of death as a suicide and requires they instead list the death as from natural causes.
Gail Churchill, a Canadian investigative coroner Church Militant interviewed, raised a number of concerns with that practice, saying, "They've built in a concealing and a prejudice."
She explained vital statistics will be skewed and with wider acceptance, health care could be denied to those who want it.
"When they make it so normal and natural, even on paper, it's going to be a little bit easier to advance their agenda," she said.
If suicide is committed with the intention of setting an example, especially to the young, it also takes on the gravity of scandal.Tweet
At least two bishops have spoken out publicly against providing last rites for those planning to die by assisted suicide. Archbishop Terrence Prendergast of Ottawa, Ontario, released a statement in 2016 noting a person who is planning suicide doesn't have the proper disposition needed to receive the sacrament.
Although he encouraged priests to be present to pray, the person may "turn away from it," he explained:
Asking to be killed is gravely disordered and is a rejection of the hope that the rite calls for and tries to bring into the situation. … But we cannot be forgiven pre-emptively for something we are going to do — like ask for assisted suicide when suicide is a grave sin.
In December 2016, Bp. Vitus Huonder of Chur, Switzerland also released a statement instructing priests in his diocese not to administer last rites to those planning on committing assisted suicide.
He explained, "The readiness of a suffering patient to commit suicide with help from a bystander places any priest in an impossible situation if called to administer sacraments."
He added: "[F]rom a Christian viewpoint, life and death are in God's hands — we do not decide about them for ourselves. Suicide, like murder, contradicts the divine world order."
Robert Fuller surrounded by friends at his death
(Courtesy of Elaine Thompson, AP)
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) paragraphs 2276 to 2283 regarding euthanasia and suicide state clearly that it is "morally unacceptable" to put an end to the lives of handicapped, sick or dying persons either by administering lethal drugs or withholding medical care.
Suicide contradicts the natural inclination to preserve and perpetuate life and is "contrary to the love for the living God," the CCC notes. "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."
Paragraph 2282 further states: "If suicide is committed with the intention of setting an example, especially to the young, it also takes on the gravity of scandal."
Fuller was surrounded by friends and family when he injected a cocktail of lethal medications and Kaluha, his favorite drink, into his own abdomen.
The archbishops of Seattle have committed to review the events reported in the Associated Press article and plan to clarify any confusion or misunderstanding the article may have caused.
Church Militant reached out to St. Therese parish, Fr. Scott Santarosa, the Jesuit provincial of the West region but have not heard back by press time.
Ping
Sorry the priest found fit to commit suicide. Especially with Catholics that is a no-no.
(/Dept of bad headlines)
Jesuits are the ultimate “Wolves in Sheeps’ Clothing”
A clerical collar doesn’t turn a sodomite into a man of God any more than lipstick and a dress turns a man into a woman.
Good grief. They dragged cbildren into this obscenity!
The Seattle Times had a front page story about this today, and of course they thought it was so wonderful because it was a trifecta of in-your-face anti-Catholicism: a same-sex wedding, communion for unrepentant sinners (done openly in front of young children), all in preparation for an assisted-suicide which goes against Catholic moral teaching.
If suicide can't be listed as the cause of death on the death certificate, how does the author know exactly what the number is today? Is he just counting all "natural causes" deaths as suicides?
Did I read it wrong? I thought the man who committed suicide was not a priest, but he was given a blessing by a priest.
The Archbishop has to grow a pair, close the parish and expel this renegade, hereic Jesuit from his diocese.
You didn’t read it wrong.
Freedum2003 tried to read it wrong. He failed.
I am no longer shocked. It can’t go any lower. Or can it?
Robert Fuller (a layman, member of the parish), committed suicide a couple of days after having been given a very public blessing by the priest during a a Liturgical celebration.
According to the article, some of the parishioners knew this was in view of his impending suicide, but not all of them knew that.
In any case, you don't bless people to commit suicide. You accompany them with love in their journey towards natural death, knowing that, living or dying, their lives belong to God.
You encourage them to live, because life and death are in the hands of God.
To do otherwise is to be an accomplice in murder.
I try to avoid giving a Jesuit the benefit of the doubt on anything - but given most in the parish were aware of the assisted suicide plans, is it possible that a number of them decided “Uh, the less the priest knows of this plan, the better off he is”?
On a side note, I hope I never have to make the decision this guy did. The pain and misery from both the cancer and chemo must have been overwhelming. I wonder what I’d have done in the same situation. I disagree with what he did but I hope he’s at peace from the pain.
But I get the distinct feeling that the deceased was trying more to make a political and moral statement - getting married to another guy, seeking blessing in the Church for something he knew was wrong and for making his death such a public thing.
Was it a pre- homo wedding blessing?
If not, what was this singular blessing for?
The require the coroners to commit perjury.
How nice is that?
Jerry Brown: Jesuit instruction at seminary.
Gavin Newsom: Jesuit instruction at university.
I for one see a pattern.
I bet he wishes he could have had an abortion right after the wedding and just before the suicide.
“Did I read it wrong? I thought the man who committed suicide was not a priest, but he was given a blessing by a priest.”
You read it just fine.
CHILD ABUSE
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