End of life conversation

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Anfpreece

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My father-in-law was recently diagnosed with cancer that is progressing quickly. He is not Catholic. How do we start the conversation about eternity? We don’t want to offend, but we also don’t want to regret not speaking up.
 
Is his wife still alive? Talk with her first. If not, talk with a priest about how to go about ‘the talk’. The one who serves the local hospital or hospice might be a good choice…

We did this with my mother and it helped. My father had a stroke before we could talk, but went by the same guidelines used with my mother.

Sorry for your situation, I’ll pray for you and yours.
 
His current wife is still living. He’s been married 3 times. But I don’t know that she will want us to talk to him at all about it.
 
My thought:

Pray for your father-in-law, and speak to him in love. As others said, you may want to get some advice from a priest first.

If your father-in-law gets upset, just remain calm and keep praying for him.
 
Anfpreece said:
His current wife is still living. He’s been married 3 times. But I don’t know that she will want us to talk to him at all about it.
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Go with a priest first then, you will need to talk to both husband and wife about this issue…

Prayers for you…
 
Anfpreece said:
My father-in-law was recently diagnosed with cancer that is progressing quickly. He is not Catholic. How do we start the conversation about eternity? We don’t want to offend, but we also don’t want to regret not speaking up.
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Perhaps you could have a conversation first about what is meaningful to him and how you might be able to help as he goes through this journey. It would give you opportunity to see how he wants to handle this.
 
You could just be Blunt and say, " might be a good time to find God , just in Case " :cool:
 
Asking about the progression of his disease is a good start, then how he feels about the pace of progression, then asking if he has thought about “what’s next?”. All within a general conversation.

From a lot of experience with the dying, there tend not to be a lot of death bed conversions. If people have lived a certain way for 30, 40, 50 years, they usually remain on the same trajectory.

Good luck. You and your family have been prayed for.
 
SteveLy said:
Asking about the progression of his disease is a good start, then how he feels about the pace of progression, then asking if he has thought about “what’s next?”. All within a general conversation.

From a lot of experience with the dying, there tend not to be a lot of death bed conversions. If people have lived a certain way for 30, 40, 50 years, they usually remain on the same trajectory.

Good luck. You and your family have been prayed for.
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With God all things are possible.
 
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