The loss of any innocent life is a tragedy and the act of suicide is always objectively wrong.
Every person is made by God in his image and likeness. Our lives belong to Him and we are merely stewards obligated to preserve life – body and soul.
The guilt of suicide is subjective. For it to be a sin, the person must take their own life willingly while understanding that it is morally wrong.
The mental state of the individual may lessen their responsibility and God alone is the judge of how much a person loves Him and how responsible they are for their actions.
Following a suicide, the Church will pray for God’s mercy, can offer Mass for the repose of the soul, and may bury the body of the victim in a Catholic cemetery.
To prevent suicide, the spiritual, mental, and physical health and wellness of all people should be nourished and preserved through prayer, counseling, and other therapy.
All life is sacred and should be protected:
Suicide is objectively evil but subjectively complex:
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.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 2281
A loss of perspective versus a denial of God:
We don’t know what happened between the bridge and the water:
He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22: 37-40
God judges with compassion:
There is always reason to hope in the mercy of God:
Suicide is always as morally objectionable as murder. The Church’s tradition has always rejected it as a gravely evil choice. Even though a certain psychological, cultural and social conditioning may induce a person to carry out an action which so radically contradicts the innate inclination to life, thus lessening or removing subjective responsibility, suicide, when viewed objectively, is a gravely immoral act. In fact, it involves the rejection of love of self and the renunciation of the obligation of justice and charity towards one’s neighbour, towards the communities to which one belongs, and towards society as a whole. In its deepest reality, suicide represents a rejection of God’s absolute sovereignty over life and death, as proclaimed in the prayer of the ancient sage of Israel: “You have power over life and death; you lead men down to the gates of Hades and back again”.
Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, March 25, 1995
The Church prays for people who commit suicide:
There is help for the grief and pain of loss after suicide:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
Let Him look at you:
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