What about suicide?

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My husband just had a friend that committed suicide. This friend was a Baptist. My husband is very distraught over it. (My husband is Catholic, and I am Protestant moving toward Catholicism.) I have read the Bible more than him, so last night he asked me if it says in the Bible that someone who has committed suicide cannot enter heaven. I could tell he was very upset. I really did not know what answer to give him. I know that the Bible says that murderers will not enter heaven, but I don’t believe it addresses suicide. I know as a Baptist Protestant the answer that I would have given him is “if the person knows Christ, then not even suicide can take heaven away from him (once saved always saved).” However, even Protestants (possibly even different Baptists) disagree on this. I also believe that the Catholics teach that suicide is murder of oneself and that it is a mortal sin, or that a person who committed suicide would die without any type of forgiveness. All I could offer him were the 3 things above that I just mentioned. I also know that for a Catholic to commit a mortal sin, he has to be aware that it is a mortal sin. This man was a Protestant so he would not be aware that suicide is a mortal sin. My husband said that this friend was the last person that he would expect suicide from because he was always thinking of others. Could motive in the suicide be a factor? For instance, if he wasn’t in his right frame of mind or if medication had affected him or if he was depressed or if he was drunk? I was frustrated because I did not have a very helpful answer for him. As a Baptist, I would have, but as a Protestant looking toward Catholicism, I didn’t. This is why it is hard changing. The Baptist answers are much easier, but that does not mean they are right. Does anyone have any info (especially Catholics)? Please help!😦
 
wed2catholic said:
My husband just had a friend that committed suicide. This friend was a Baptist. My husband is very distraught over it. (My husband is Catholic, and I am Protestant moving toward Catholicism.) I have read the Bible more than him, so last night he asked me if it says in the Bible that someone who has committed suicide cannot enter heaven. I could tell he was very upset. I really did not know what answer to give him. I know that the Bible says that murderers will not enter heaven, but I don’t believe it addresses suicide. I know as a Baptist Protestant the answer that I would have given him is “if the person knows Christ, then not even suicide can take heaven away from him (once saved always saved).” However, even Protestants (possibly even different Baptists) disagree on this. I also believe that the Catholics teach that suicide is murder of oneself and that it is a mortal sin, or that a person who committed suicide would die without any type of forgiveness. All I could offer him were the 3 things above that I just mentioned. I also know that for a Catholic to commit a mortal sin, he has to be aware that it is a mortal sin. This man was a Protestant so he would not be aware that suicide is a mortal sin. My husband said that this friend was the last person that he would expect suicide from because he was always thinking of others. Could motive in the suicide be a factor? For instance, if he wasn’t in his right frame of mind or if medication had affected him or if he was depressed or if he was drunk? I was frustrated because I did not have a very helpful answer for him. As a Baptist, I would have, but as a Protestant looking toward Catholicism, I didn’t. This is why it is hard changing. The Baptist answers are much easier, but that does not mean they are right. Does anyone have any info (especially Catholics)? Please help!😦
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To constitute a mortal sin three requirements have to be there:
1.Its subject must be a grave (or serious) matter.
2. It must be committed with full knowledge, both of the sin and of the gravity of the offense (no one is considered ignorant of the principles of the moral law, which are inborn as part of human knowledge, but these principles can be misunderstood in a particular context).
3. It must be committed with deliberate and complete consent, enough for it to have been a personal decision to commit the sin.

So, if there was some type of depression or mental problem, there might not have been the full knowledge(also because he’s a Protestant) or the complete consent because of that.
We entrust his soul to God’s mercy and I’ll be praying for him.
 
wed2catholic said:
My husband just had a friend that committed suicide. This friend was a Baptist. My husband is very distraught over it. (My husband is Catholic, and I am Protestant moving toward Catholicism.) I have read the Bible more than him, so last night he asked me if it says in the Bible that someone who has committed suicide cannot enter heaven. I could tell he was very upset. I really did not know what answer to give him. I know that the Bible says that murderers will not enter heaven, but I don’t believe it addresses suicide. I know as a Baptist Protestant the answer that I would have given him is “if the person knows Christ, then not even suicide can take heaven away from him (once saved always saved).” However, even Protestants (possibly even different Baptists) disagree on this. I also believe that the Catholics teach that suicide is murder of oneself and that it is a mortal sin, or that a person who committed suicide would die without any type of forgiveness. All I could offer him were the 3 things above that I just mentioned. I also know that for a Catholic to commit a mortal sin, he has to be aware that it is a mortal sin. This man was a Protestant so he would not be aware that suicide is a mortal sin. My husband said that this friend was the last person that he would expect suicide from because he was always thinking of others. Could motive in the suicide be a factor? For instance, if he wasn’t in his right frame of mind or if medication had affected him or if he was depressed or if he was drunk? I was frustrated because I did not have a very helpful answer for him. As a Baptist, I would have, but as a Protestant looking toward Catholicism, I didn’t. This is why it is hard changing. The Baptist answers are much easier, but that does not mean they are right. Does anyone have any info (especially Catholics)? Please help!😦
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Dear friend you have my sympathies and my prayers. I lost a brother-in-law and a high school friend to suicide.

If there is mental illness, which someone who is suicidal generally is clinically depressed, the person’s culpability is in question. A person who believes there is no reason to live is in quite a lot of bodily and spiritual anguish. We do not know the state of a person’s soul. Only God knows. A person is not “automatically” condemned to hell because of suicide.

Please give your husband the consolation that he should pray for his friends’ soul in purgatory or even if in a state of sin, to give him grace. Beg the Blessed Mother for peace.
 
Hi,

I have lost several friends to suicide. My SD has had to help me through many painful processes of grieving. He showed me something that truly gave me hope and brought the much needed peace and comfort that I was looking for.

Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraph 2283

“We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives.”

God Bless.
 
I think all hinges on the state of mind in the last moments. Let’s say someone commits suicide and leaves a note saying they’re sorry and genuinely worries about the welfare of those surviving him. All hope is warranted in this case. Suicide out of spite, to get revenge, person very angry at God, not so much.
 
The Church learns from the field of psychology. Things unknown in former times-- various mental illnesses, depression, chemical imbalances, etc-- help form balanced teaching regarding suicide as a sin against the fifth commandment and the mercy of God towards those in despair.

2280 Everyone is responsible for his life before God who has given it to him.
It is God who remains the sovereign Master of life. We are obliged to accept life gratefully and preserve it for his honor and the salvation of our souls. We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of.

2281 Suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his life. It is gravely contrary to the just love of self. It likewise offends love of neighbor because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity with family, nation, and other human societies to which we continue to have obligations. Suicide is contrary to love for the living God.

2282 If suicide is committed with the intention of setting an example, especially to the young, it also takes on the gravity of scandal. Voluntary co-operation in suicide is contrary to the moral law. Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide.

2283 We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. the Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives.
 
This is what a Father said to me.

God knows peoples heart, and knows their pain and sorrow. He knows how they think and knows that they are sick if someone does comitte sucide, God is sad and understands why, and what that person was going through. So Father Bob then told me Yes people do go to heaven because of their mental sickness and because of them being that way and cannot manage life anymore God will take them home. To a better place.
 
I have posted this before, but I will do it again. When Ruth Graham, Billy’s wife, was asked about suicide, she said, “God did not call him home, but He welcomed him.” That says it all. People do not want to die, they just want the pain to stop. Let us have compassion for the sick at heart and the mentally disturbed. God bless you!
 
These have all been very good answers. Thank you; I am sharing them with my husband.
 
Suicide used to viewed by the Church as a sure fire way to damnation. It used to be the law that suicides were not allowed to be buried on Church grounds, or their graves could not be blessed by a priest (they were considered excommunicated).

BUT that view has changed because now the Church recognizes that suicides may be a result of depression or serious mental illness. The best way to look at suicides is to pray fo the soul of the departed. God in His infinite mercy understands our pain and suffering. Have a mass or two said for your husbands friend. May he rest in peace and be forgiven of all his sins.
 
I find it very helpful to remember that there is the SHARP divide between general moral principles and their specific appliation to people other than ourselves.

On the one hand, it has always been catholic teaching that suicide is grave matter and is objectively a mortal sin. I say objectively, because nobody but God knows what mitigating factors reduce the person’s culpability. We all seem to have this tendency to want to pronounce people to be in heaven or hell. I’ve attended a good number of funerals where the deceased was all but pronounced to be in heaven. NOT our job to discern. I’ve also heard numerous people speculate about who is in hell. Also not our job (Nobody in history has been authoritatively declared to be in Hell.)

The best we can do is to recognize that the departed (for whatever cause) are now in the hands of the One who INVENTED Mercy. Who can ask for more than that? As a catholic, he should also pray for Mercy for his friend, because if his other friends and family are all protestant, he might be the ONLY one praying for him. Why pray for the dead? Two reasons:
  1. God exists outside of time. Past and future have no meaning to Him (I am). Pray for anybody and everybody you feel called to pray for and Grace will be granted to them when/where they need it.
  2. Purgatory. Death marks the divide between those destined for heaven and those for hell. Every single person in Purgatory goes to heaven. But praying for them helps them with their ‘heaven-prep’, that sanctification still necessary for them to enter heaven without trashing the place.
 
wed2catholic said:
My husband just had a friend that committed suicide. This friend was a Baptist. My husband is very distraught over it. (My husband is Catholic, and I am Protestant moving toward Catholicism.) I have read the Bible more than him, so last night he asked me if it says in the Bible that someone who has committed suicide cannot enter heaven. I could tell he was very upset. I really did not know what answer to give him. I know that the Bible says that murderers will not enter heaven, but I don’t believe it addresses suicide. I know as a Baptist Protestant the answer that I would have given him is “if the person knows Christ, then not even suicide can take heaven away from him (once saved always saved).” However, even Protestants (possibly even different Baptists) disagree on this. I also believe that the Catholics teach that suicide is murder of oneself and that it is a mortal sin, or that a person who committed suicide would die without any type of forgiveness. All I could offer him were the 3 things above that I just mentioned. I also know that for a Catholic to commit a mortal sin, he has to be aware that it is a mortal sin. This man was a Protestant so he would not be aware that suicide is a mortal sin. My husband said that this friend was the last person that he would expect suicide from because he was always thinking of others. Could motive in the suicide be a factor? For instance, if he wasn’t in his right frame of mind or if medication had affected him or if he was depressed or if he was drunk? I was frustrated because I did not have a very helpful answer for him. As a Baptist, I would have, but as a Protestant looking toward Catholicism, I didn’t. This is why it is hard changing. The Baptist answers are much easier, but that does not mean they are right. Does anyone have any info (especially Catholics)? Please help!😦
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I think everyone else has already given good responses…I just wanted to add that I will keep your husband and your husband’s friend in my prayers. God bless.
 
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