Priest at Funeral: 18 Year Old may be kept out of heaven over suicide

[JBG]

Parents say priest told mourners that son may be kept out of heaven over suicide: report

A priest laid it right between the eyes at a funeral, to the mourners as well as to the parents; the 18 year old youth, a Straight A student, who committed suicide was not going go to heaven. I am uncertain whether the priest had any control over the matter, but apparently, it does not matter how the person lived their life or what drove them to the point of desperation.

Most of the leaders in my particular religion, thankfully, believe that the right question to ask is not whether the person is going to heaven or down below, but what kind of life they lived, and who they've helped, in the living world. But to me, this is no way to comfort mourners. It is a public shaming, and why?

https://www.foxnews.com/us/parents-want-priests-whop-presided-over-sons-funeral-removed

 

[Serenity]

Read the article, fortunately measures have been taken to ensure that he won't be doing that again anytime soon.

I guess he never got the memo that his role in the church is to assist in supporting the family through such an awful time. He should be providing comfort and consolation, not adding to their grief. That's a really crappy thing to do. Truly horrible.

 

[JBG]

Read the article, fortunately measures have been taken to ensure that he won't be doing that again anytime soon.

I guess he never got the memo that his role in the church is to assist in supporting the family through such an awful time. He should be providing comfort and consolation, not adding to their grief. That's a really crappy thing to do. Truly horrible.

I just emailed my three Rabbis for their views on whether Judaism similarly condemns the families of people who commits suicide.

 

[Jetboogieman]

Wow... That is ****, like Suuuuuuuuuuper ****.

I'm sure at some point, some sociopath on the forum will be along to say "Yah well... The priest was right yah know".

It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter one bit, whether from a theological perspective you want to get into that, yah just don't say it, yah just don't.

 

[JC Callender]

"Really, the only way for that to happen is for this priest to be removed. We’re afraid that, like the Catholic Church does, they’ll send him off and he’ll do it to somebody else," Jeff Hullibarger said.

Can anyone blame them for thinking this?

 

[vesper]

Gosh the story is really short on details about the 18 year old who felt so desperate to take his own life. That alone is the tragedy.


That would be very hard for any parent to deal with and most likely would haunt them the rest of their days.


Surely they didn't need a priest making the comments that he did. How awful.


I wish I could tell them that the priest isn't the ultimate judge but G-d Himself and to leave it there. I tell you the truth, I am so thankful that G-d will be my judge because he is Just. People not so much.

 

[Skeptic Bob]

That priest is a horrible human being. I wouldn’t have blamed the father if he had excommunicated the priest’s teeth from his mouth. WTF?

 

[JBG]

That priest is a horrible human being. I wouldn’t have blamed the father if he had excommunicated the priest’s teeth from his mouth. WTF?

And announce that the priest is not going to heaven, either.

 

[GDViking]

Sad thing is all those pedophile priests believe that they are going to heaven...

 

[JoanDavis]

Sad thing is all those pedophile priests believe that they are going to heaven...

Well the Catholic Church thinks so. Why else would they have spent years and millions of dollars protecting them and covering up for them?

 

[Conaeolos]

I am sympathetic to the point that this is not what I nor this family would expect when they choose to have such a service at their local catholic church.

That said, I am 100% that "sociopath" that also thinks "Yah well... The priest was right yah know".

That family is directly contributory to pain behind it. I have met and worked with enough struggling 18 year olds and suicides - they don't just commit suicide in isolation of their environments. So honestly maybe some 'tough love' and 'reality checks' in that crowd are about right on the money.

Suicides are preventable and not just tragic happenstance….and frankly the parents stated reaction to the whole affair makes me cringe more than the priest rudeness as it only put emphasis on their selfish entitlement which I can't help but think played a role.

His life obviously wasn't shine-shine and rainbows. It was suffering.I suffer with clinical depression most of my life. If I took my life in an episode. I would in no way fault that being called an evil and recognized as apart of my memory.

And although I believe in type of redemption via reincarnation not a catholic purgatory, heaven or hell, or judgement in a resurrection --- so maybe it's less final from my POV — but there is no doubt dying via suicide comes out of an experience of a Hell and thus is not escaped in the eternal sense. Karma. Truth matters more than feelings. Not all souls rest in heaven, some experiences are tragic. Some souls suffer.

Judge the preist, but there no sceanario where he is saying it to just be cruel. He speaking a truth, to awaken a lesson from a tragedy and I have no doubt others in that church are also in a Hell. Lying to them to appear comforting isn't going to redeem anyone from their suffering. Courge takes facing the scary truth. Loving is more powerful but stoic truth is not without love. Lying however...

 

[Logicman]

The priest should not have said what he did.

That aside, the 18 year old still would have had to have received Christ as his savior for the remission of his sins in order to get into heaven. Committing suicide is not of itself a free pass to heaven. If it were, Hitler would be there himself right now.

There are bad days and there are really bad days for the unsaved when they die tragically and then, because they have denied Christ, are cast into the Lake of Fire (Revelation 21:8) where all unbelievers wind up.

 

[JBG]

Sad thing is all those pedophile priests believe that they are going to heaven...

True but there is no indication this priest is a pedophile; just someone who doesn't know when to withhold judgement and think through what he says.

Well the Catholic Church thinks so. Why else would they have spent years and millions of dollars protecting them and covering up for them?

Liability issues, pure and simple.

 

[JBG]

I am sympathetic to the point that this is not what I nor this family would expect when they choose to have such a service at their local catholic church.

That said, I am 100% that "sociopath" that also thinks "Yah well... The priest was right yah know".

That family is directly contributory to pain behind it. I have met and worked with enough struggling 18 year olds and suicides - they don't just commit suicide in isolation of their environments. So honestly maybe some 'tough love' and 'reality checks' in that crowd are about right on the money.

Suicides are preventable and not just tragic happenstance….and frankly the parents stated reaction to the whole affair makes me cringe more than the priest rudeness as it only put emphasis on their selfish entitlement which I can't help but think played a role.

His life obviously wasn't shine-shine and rainbows. It was suffering.I suffer with clinical depression most of my life. If I took my life in an episode. I would in no way fault that being called an evil and recognized as apart of my memory.

And although I believe in type of redemption via reincarnation not a catholic purgatory, heaven or hell, or judgement in a resurrection --- so maybe it's less final from my POV — but there is no doubt dying via suicide comes out of an experience of a Hell and thus is not escaped in the eternal sense. Karma. Truth matters more than feelings. Not all souls rest in heaven, some experiences are tragic. Some souls suffer.

Judge the preist, but there no sceanario where he is saying it to just be cruel. He speaking a truth, to awaken a lesson from a tragedy and I have no doubt others in that church are also in a Hell. Lying to them to appear comforting isn't going to redeem anyone from their suffering. Courge takes facing the scary truth. Loving is more powerful but stoic truth is not without love. Lying however...

I value this thoughtful post. However, a funeral is not the time to administer "tough love" to the family.

I personally nearly committed suicide at Cornell in April 1977. I can assure you my family was an infinitesimal part of the problem. If I was going to blame anyone but myself I would say it was mediocre guidance and a looming failure in my language requirement. As well as social problems. But again many if not all of these problems, in the hindsight of more than 40 years, were self-inflicted.

 

[PTF]

a Straight A student, who committed suicide was not going go to heaven.

Celebrant has no right in saying that at a funeral with love ones and friends attending. I would of stood up and said " You've dialed the wrong number and yes...this student is in heaven and don't show up at the repast.

 

[Angel]

What the priest did was pretty damn stupid. Only slightly less stupid is making a federal case of it.
But this is the sign of our times.
As is the social-media gang-up.
Stop the world I want to get off.

 

[JBG]

Only slightly less stupid is making a federal case of it.
But this is the sign of our times.
As is the social-media gang-up.
Stop the world I want to get off.

I strongly disagree. There is no other way to communicate effectively with thousands of religious leaders.

 

[nota bene]

Gosh the story is really short on details about the 18 year old who felt so desperate to take his own life. That alone is the tragedy.

That would be very hard for any parent to deal with and most likely would haunt them the rest of their days.

Surely they didn't need a priest making the comments that he did. How awful.

I wish I could tell them that the priest isn't the ultimate judge but G-d Himself and to leave it there. I tell you the truth, I am so thankful that G-d will be my judge because he is Just. People not so much.

Not to mention merciful.

I've posted what I'm about to share before, but as it so happens, it's appropriate, I think, to repeat here. It's certainly remained with me all these years since I attended the Catholic funeral of a young man who had committed suicide. Only child. National champion gymnast in high school who continued to compete in college but, despite a lovely fiancée, fell in with a hard-partying crowd and blew everything. Lost his competitive edge, his grades, and was about to lose his girl.

The church was packed to the rafters with young people and was standing room only, and I'd like to think that most of them took away from the funeral service what I did. The priest talked about how only God knows the hearts of His children. He said that even when Jesus was dying on the Cross, the people who knew Him best still couldn't understand what He was saying, that only His Father knew.

I am appalled by how the priest in the OP seized the wrong point at the wrong time. With all the media attention, I imagine he is experiencing quite the "teachable moment" now. Given our current climate, probably death threats too.

And what a cruel distraction from the grieving process for the bereaved parents. This shouldn't have happened, but it has, and we really have only one recourse.

 

[Daisy]

The priest is a numbskull...there are many things to consider with a suicide victim and Jehovah takes them all into consideration...

 

[Angel]

I strongly disagree. There is no other way to communicate effectively with thousands of religious leaders.

Wherefore the need "to communicate effectively with thousands of religious leaders"?
What do thousands of religious leaders have to do with one impolitic priest?

 

[blarg]

The priest should not have said what he did.

That aside, the 18 year old still would have had to have received Christ as his savior for the remission of his sins in order to get into heaven. Committing suicide is not of itself a free pass to heaven. If it were, Hitler would be there himself right now.

There are bad days and there are really bad days for the unsaved when they die tragically and then, because they have denied Christ, are cast into the Lake of Fire (Revelation 21:8) where all unbelievers wind up.

and hear is the real problem not insientivity but monsters who believe other people should be hurt forever dosent matter if they are kind enough to shut up about it at certain times

 

[Logicman]

and hear is the real problem not insientivity but monsters who believe other people should be hurt forever dosent matter if they are kind enough to shut up about it at certain times

It if wasn't for that "monster" you wouldn't be breathing.

 

[blarg]

It if wasn't for that "monster" you wouldn't be breathing.

probably would be since it seems to be made up but while yes the character of your god is monstrous im referring to believers who think hurting other people forever is ok

 

[blarg]

It if wasn't for that "monster" you wouldn't be breathing.

now without my dad i would not be breathing but if he liked to torture people in a basement he would still be a rather ****y person

infinitely better then your god and everyone who supports infinite torture but still ****ty

 

[Angel]

Oy! Discourse once again reduced to the unmitigatedly silly by anti-theism.