Understanding Suicide

This column by Father Ron Rolheiser, his annual suicide column, ran in our Catholic Herald.

Suicide victims are, like victims of sickness and accidents, not responsible for their own deaths...

As evidence, he cites novelist William Styron. Styron uses words like "despair" and "diabolical" but not in a catechetical sense.

Styron suggests the suicidal depression is, in the end, caused by chemical imbalance, despite the fact that other factors (lifestyle, childhood, moral values, memory) contribute.

Some other priest might have found a column in that "despite the fact that ... moral values ... contribute."

Our judgments need to be gentle, our understanding deep, and our forgiveness wide.

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