It would appear that this young man’s mother is a devout Catholic. Perhaps she begged the parish to allow her son’s ‘cremains’ (the young man was cremated) to be interred there. It does seem there is enough doubt that Andrew Cunanan was mentally in full possession of his faculties and the pastor of the Church, or the bishop, may have agreed to allow the ‘cremains’ to rest there so that the mother could visit the ‘grave’ as she apparently does most regularly. After all, the Church ‘consigns’ no one to hell. . . there has never been a case where the Church has taught, as dogma, that ANY INDIVIDUAL BEING is KNOWN to be in hell. Not even Judas.
Of course, we often say the Church is a hospital for SINNERS. I am sure that there are many people ‘buried in a Catholic cemetary’ or other sacred place who did terrible crimes–but not so ‘publically’. Yes, in the ‘old days’ suicides were not permitted burial in consecrated ground but this was never a ‘doctrine’ or ‘dogma’ and now we understood mental illness better and that it could indeed mean that the person was not fully consenting (because of not being in his right mind), or fully understanding of the gravity (ditto), then the culpability for mortal sin could be lessened --and also that, for suicides particularly, one could ‘repent’ before the death (but too late to ‘stop it’).
We can–and should–pray for this young man’s soul. Granted he was guilty of horrific crimes–but he may well have repented. Only God knows.
