Quote:
Originally Posted by ShawnaCAN
I was raised Catholic so in that I was taught you go to Hell if you commit suicide.
This isn't actually what the Catholic faith teaches though, perhaps it was just someone's misconception about the faith.
We (Catholics) believe that suicide is a serious sin, but nobody knows what happens in the last moments before a suicidal person dies. If they have a split second to repent sincerely, they will not go to Hell. There is also the issue of culpability. In order to commit a mortal sin and go to Hell for it, you have to have full awareness that what you're doing is seriously sinful and deliberately do it anyway. Someone who commits suicide is usually suffering from emotional issues, or trauma, or depression, or mental illness to such an extent that they cannot be fully aware of what they are doing - they just want to make the pain stop. So culpability is diminished.
As Catholics, we commend those who commit suicide to the mercy of God because we simply don't know what state their soul was in during the very last moment of their lives. Only God knows that. He can forgive any sin if we ask forgiveness for it, even suicide if we have time.
|
I agree it isn't the teaching of today but I was taught that by my super Catholic Grandmother who was raised in the old Catholic ways (I think in the 60s is when the Church started changing and getting with the times)
Quote:
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.
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.
|
I agree with you (Smashley) that it is hard to understand by God would chose to give someone a perfectly wonderful life and then turn around and give someone horrible mental diseases. I think that's a reason why some people don't believe in God, and to me, it's completely understandable.
It's easy to say "God lets us make our own choices." Okay well thats great but what about the people who are born sick....what choice did they get?
I can be really over map about stuff like this.
Like I said earlier I believe 100% in something after death, I just don't know what. I believe in God also. Some days I can completely understand why people don't believe in God and then other days I just have to look at DD or nature and can't understand why people don't believe there is a God.