My church performs funeral services for those who have committed suicide.

it is the only unforgivable sin. I guess since you are no longer there to ask for forgiveness you will not be granted it.

One cannot know the state of mind of the person who takes his/her own life.
One also cannot know the final thought of such a person.

As I said I am not entirely sure. I think I may have heard it sometime in my life. I will however ask a friend who works for the Catholic Church. They will most defiantly know.

The "unforgiveable sin" is blasphemy aginst the Holy Spirit. Matthew 12:31; cf. Mark 3:29; Luke 12:10.

No, that is not what passes for discussion in the Religion Group. It is the conviction that God cannot forgive a given sin or a given person. At its root, it is doubt that God is God. At its root is the conviction that sin is greater than the Creator. At its root, it is the belief that we can do things greater than God is able to do. There are echoes of the apple of Eden in that.

Here's a short article on it, albeit one written by a priest of the Legio Christi, the group founded by, to quote Benedict XVI, the "reprehensible and objectively immoral" Fr. Marcial Maciel. Even he could be forgiven.

https://rcspirituality.org/ask-a-priest-what-are-sins-against-the-holy-spirit/

But I have read that there have been an estimated 100 billion deaths in the history of humankind.

It's impossible to put an exact number on suicides, but generally speaking in modern times, suicides account for about 1.5% of deaths.

So if you apply that percentage to 100 billion, you are left with 1.5 billion "lost souls." That's a whole lot!

had a former student ask and I couldn't give any comfort. Her boyfriend killed himself and she obviously catholic screamed in the funeral that he sent himself to hell.


I grew up with the believe that if you asked God to live in your heart-salvation there was nothing you could do that God would turn his back on you.

I am sure other religions say their own things. I would just like to give some comfort to the lady that was all freaked out but I felt inadequate at the time.

http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2014/10/22/can_catholics_who_commit_suicide_be_given_a_church_burial/1109137

Tell your friend to mourn her loss and, if she is Catholic, to trust her boyfriend to the infinite understanding and mercy of Christ.

What is paramount now is her grief.

Academically, the Catholic Church, while frequently mocked for declaring saints, has never declared that anyone, including Judas, is in hell. I was told in high school by an Irish Christian brother that one must fully, knowingly and deliberately turn his or her back on God and choose to be without God. No mitigation, no external pressure or circumstances, just a cool, completely self-driven, act of will to remove oneself from God. That is "hell", the complete and utter absence of God. Of course, part of that is knowing exactly what is being rejected, not some deformed caricature.

He also said that it is an extraordinarily difficult thing to do. It is much harder for a human being to choose hell than it is to choose heaven. Even though it is much easier to do wrong than it is to do right. It really is not contradictory.

Stay close to your friend. Your compassion for her is admirable.