[Huntress]

RIP Mary Kennedy. I am curious as to why the Catholic Church was willing to give her a church funeral, given that she was a suicide. Could some Catholic Freepers enlighten me?

[HiTech RedNeck]

Or was it provided by a Protestant/evangelical minister but in that same building?

I do not know if reasons for the suicide are considered by the clergy, whether that sin could be forgivable. Despairing of having to put up with the Kennedys might almost be considered venal without additional factors (OK, I’m being very sardonic about it and I’m one of those lousy Protestants too).

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Well considering the mutant pond scum she was married to I would consider it more of a murder by extreme mental torture.

[Gay State Conservative]

RIP Mary Kennedy. I am curious as to why the Catholic Church was willing to give her a church funeral, given that she was a suicide. Could some Catholic Freepers enlighten me?

I'm no expert on Catholic doctrine but I believe that the Church accepts the existence of mental illness.Both depression and schizophrenia are clearly documented to involve abnormal chemistry of the brain and,as a result,I'd be *very* surprised if she was denied a Catholic burial.

[PzLdr]

I was thinking the same thing. But then, they let that slug Jabba the Senator receive communion after a divorce and a midnight swim.

[crosshairs]

I am curious as to why the Catholic Church was willing to give her a church funeral, given that she was a suicide. Could some Catholic Freepers enlighten me?

The Catholic church will overlook anything if you have the financial means or celebrity.

[firebrand]

It is now considered mental illness, I believe.

[Mears]

The church had a funeral mass in 1960 for my cousin who committed suicide.

[Campion]

Could some Catholic Freepers enlighten me?

Sure. It used to be common practice to deny a church funeral to a suicide. However, someone's subjective culpability for a sin depends on their mental freedom and ability to understand the sinfulness of their act. The theory today is that most suicides are sufficiently depressed or otherwise mentally disturbed that they cannot, with certainty, be held completely subjectively culpable for their sin. So its very rare today for a suicide to be denied a church funeral.

And, pace crosshairs, the fact that a Kennedy was involved has nothing to do with it.

[alice_in_bubbaland]

She’s a Kennedy, different rules apply to them.

[libstripper]

I'm not a Catholic, but we had a similar situation in my family about a year ago. The young man in question suffered a severe traumatic brain injury that almost killed him when he was 12 years old. Thereafter he bacame manic depressive and was at the high end of a manic high over Christmas 2010. He entered the depressive low in June or July of 2011 and hanged himself after buying his first house and getting a major promotion at work accompanied by a stellar performance evaluation. He wanted to be a concert pianist but was never to get the music out of himself, apparently a part of the great pain he sufered that led him to take his own life. The church detemined his death was caused by mental illness and alloed him a full Catholic wedding.

[GoldenPup]

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