suicide

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Can a justification for suicide be: if a “person’s eye causes him/her to sin, then pluck it out” or " if a person’s hand causes him/her to sin, cut it off" …then, if a person’s life causes him/her to sin, then get rid of it? For it is better to do without any of these than to die eternally?
 
No. Only God can take a life, there is nothing sufficient in life that God’s grace cannot overcome. He put us here for a reason, it is up to Him to take it from us when our time comes.

Are you asking for a friend or for yourself?
 
No, that is not a justification. If you or anyone else you know is thinking like that, please get help! People who commit suicide are usually severely depressed and need intervention before it’s too late.

Suicide is something that hurts everyone!
 
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specialk:
Can a justification for suicide be: if a “person’s eye causes him/her to sin, then pluck it out” or " if a person’s hand causes him/her to sin, cut it off" …then, if a person’s life causes him/her to sin, then get rid of it? For it is better to do without any of these than to die eternally?
First of all, these verses are not meant to be taken literally for the simple reason that self mutilation is a sin. Suicide is a grave matter and can be a mortal sin. Also, the Catholic Church doesn’t accept the theory that everyone who commits suicide must be (in some way) insane and therefore is incapable of full knowledge and cannot commit mortal sin, so that excuse ain’t gonna fly.

These verses are NOT meant to say what you should do if you sin, but rather to illustrate the gravity of sin. Besides, your life can’t cause you to sin. You lifestyle might be a cause for sin, but your life in general cannot. If your eye causes you to sin, look the other directon or close them. If you hand causes you to sin, tie it behind your back. If your lifestyle causes you to sin, change it. All easier said than done, of course.
 
If someone knows suicide is a mortal sin but kills themselves anyway, not out of spite but because they are depressed or in pain does that not matter? Will they go to hell simply because they knew it was a mortal sin? I was told by a priest that the Church no longer believes that everyone who commits suicide automatically goes to hell, and I was wondering what is now taught about it if it really did change.
 
Let me ask another question along these lines …

Several years ago, one of the priests from our parish was transferred to another parish and made pastor of that parish. When this was happening, he aked the Bishop if he could remain where he was because he liked it in our parish and didn’t want to go to the knew church where he wouldn’t know anybody and would be the only priest there.

The bishop denied his request and transferred him. Less than a month later the priest hung himself – he had completed saying morning mass and while still wearing his vespers from Mass, placed a robe around his neck and hung himself. Mass ended at around 8:30am and the cleaning lady arrived for work at 9am and found him dead.

… I always wondered how he was going to be judged ESPECIALLY since he was trying to give his life over to doing God’s work.
 
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hk102003:
If someone knows suicide is a mortal sin but kills themselves anyway, not out of spite but because they are depressed or in pain does that not matter? Will they go to hell simply because they knew it was a mortal sin? I was told by a priest that the Church no longer believes that everyone who commits suicide automatically goes to hell, and I was wondering what is now taught about it if it really did change.
Three things are necessary to make a sin mortal: The action must be gravely sinful (this is called “matter”), the person must know it is gravely sinful (this is called “advertance”), and the person must decide freely to do it anyway (this is called “consent”). In the case you describe, and in many (possibly most) suicides, the matter is there (suicide is indeed gravely sinful), the advertance may or may not be there, and the depression and psychological pain may diminish the consent. Because we humans have no way of knowing how freely the person consented and even whether he knew the act was gravely sinful, we cannot determine whether the soul of the suicide victim goes to hell. The Church cannot declare that everyone who commits suicide goes to hell, so we commend them to the mercy of God.

Betsy
 
Sir Knight:
… I always wondered how he was going to be judged ESPECIALLY since he was trying to give his life over to doing God’s work.
Now we’re getting into salvation theology. Doing a bunch of good works doesn’t cancel out any mortal sin. Achieving eternal life is not a matter of doing more good than bad.

Our salvation is based on our faith and our state of grace at the end of our lives. If you die in a state of grace, you go to heaven, if you die and you’re not in a state of grace, then you’re probably going to hell. I don’t believe that the Catholic Church is in the business of saying who goes to hell, so we can never be completely sure of these things.
 
Hahaha !

Thats a lovely thought… I have never heard it like that… I wonder, how does life course you to sin?..
 
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