Are burial rites OK for suicide victims?

For decades, some church leaders have been reluctant to preside at the funeral of suicide victims. However, some have never had a problem with doing it, and others have changed their perspective.

The Rev Canon Ernle Gordon, rector of St Mary the Virgin's Anglican Church on Molynes Road, St Andrew, says he does not have a problem performing burial rites over the body of a person who committed suicide. In fact, he has officiated over a few such cases.

"We have done funerals like that because you can't blame the person ... and relatives and friends are there to be ministered to," he said.

Gordon cautions against the view that every person who commits suicide is lost for eternity. However, he concedes that there are persons who take their own lives who might have had difficulty finding peace.

Pressure

Gordon contends that in some cases of suicide, the victims faced pressure from a plethora of problems, with no intervention, and so eventually, they gave up.

"Nobody can tell in a split second what happens when a person is committing suicide. There is a glimpse of hope that a person can still make it into Heaven."

He continued: "All the while we have to give a space for doubt, and we don't have the answer for everything."

Roman Catholic deacon, Peter Espeut, says in former times the view was that a person who took his own life, up to that last moment, was committing a sin and had therefore damned himself and forfeited access to Heaven. "Therefore, they would not be buried in 'consecrated ground' and accorded a Christian burial. But that position has been abandoned a long time ago. For that would mean we would be judging them. We can't put limits on God's mercy."

According to Espeut, studies in psychology point to a multiplicity of reasons why people may despair, resorting to taking their own lives. "It would, therefore, be quite presumptuous to say they should not be accorded a Christian burial. I have buried suicide victims. I have no difficulty with it. I leave judgement to God. The persons could be mentally disturbed and in a 'fit of passion' where reason leaves them, they would not have acted 'freely'. They cannot be blamed for it."

The approach of the Church, says Espeut, is that we cannot usurp God's role. Vengeance and judgement belong to God, so even the suicide victim can be accorded a Christian interment.