Archdiocese Installs Cemetery Memorial for Those Who Committed Suicide to Aid Grieving Family Members

Dangerous precedent set in Chicago…

Archdiocese Installs Cemetery Memorial for Those Who Committed Suicide to Aid Grieving Family Members

Chicago Vicar General ‘Bishop’ Larry Sullivan presided over the dedication ceremony on June 26, 2026

Just as the state of Illinois is getting ready to implement so-called ‘medical aid in dying’ — also known as physician-assisted suicide or, euphemistically, euthanasia — the Archdiocese of Chicago is basically assuring its flock that suicide is a ticket to Heaven.

Illinois’ suicide-enabling so-called ‘End of Life Options Act’ was signed by Gov. Jay Robert Pritzker on Dec. 12, 2025. It is scheduled to take legal effect on Sep. 12, 2026, pending the outcome of a lawsuit filed by disability advocates and patients to block it.

Meanwhile, the ‘Roman Catholic’ Archdiocese of Chicago, still led by the insufferable ‘Cardinal’ Blase Cupich, has become the first in the nation to dedicate a memorial to victims of suicide and their loved ones at one of its cemeteries.

This may be mere coincidence, but it is tragic nonetheless. A certain link between the two, intended or not, will surely not escape notice.

‘At Peace’ Memorial Dedication Ceremony

On June 26, 2026, the diocesan vicar general and auxiliary Novus Ordo bishop Lawrence Sullivan solemnly inaugurated the ‘At Peace’ memorial at Queen of Heaven Catholic Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois, near Chicago. He was joined by Fr. Charles T. Rubey, founder and director of LOSS (‘Loving Outreach to Survivors of Suicide’).

The installation includes a memorial plaque and two sculptures:

The first piece, “Embracing Angel,” is a six-foot-tall cast bronze sculpture featuring an angel whose wings cradle a granite bench. The sculpture is intended to offer a sense of comfort and support to anyone who sits within the angel’s embrace.

The second piece,“Ascending Doves,” is a 20-foot-tall sculpture composed of stainless steel and bronze atop a solid granite base weighing more than 10,000 pounds. The sculpture features nine bronze doves rising upward, symbolizing hope and transcendence.

(Joyce Duriga, “Archdiocese dedicates first-ever memorial to those lost to suicide”, Chicago Catholic, July 8, 2026)

The archdiocese released the following brief video about the event, which included a prayer service:

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Two days before the dedication ceremony, the Archdiocese of Chicago had published the following press release:

Archdiocese of Chicago Dedicates New Memorial for Families, Loved Ones and Lives Lost to Suicide at Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Hillside on Friday, June 26 at 1 p.m.

The Archdiocese of Chicago is the first Catholic archdiocese in the U.S. to have a memorial specifically for survivors of suicide and for the lives lost to suicide.

Chicago, (June 24, 2026) – Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Chicago will host a prayer service and dedication of the “At Peace” memorial at Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Hillside on Friday, June 26 at 1 p.m. for surviving families and loves ones affected by suicide. The memorial will honor the lives lost to suicide and offer a sacred space for prayer and remembrance. The Archdiocese of Chicago is the first Catholic archdiocese in the United States to create a memorial in a Catholic cemetery for survivors and lives lost to suicide.

“This shrine stands as a reminder that no one grieves alone and that every person is held in God’s loving care,” said Bishop Lawrence J. Sullivan, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Chicago. “For families carrying the pain of losing a loved one to suicide, we want this to be a place of peace, healing and comfort.”

The memorial, located prominently near the Queen of Heaven Cemetery’s main entrance on Wolf Road, was designed to offer a visible sign of the Church’s commitment to accompanying those who grieve the loss of a loved one to suicide and to affirm God’s enduring mercy and love for those who died by suicide.

Historically, the Catholic Church denied Catholic funerals in churches and burials in consecrated ground for individuals who died by suicide. The Church has undergone a significant transformation in its understanding of suicide and mental illness and now recognizes that many who die by suicide suffer from mental illness and unbearable pain. The Church now embraces these individuals and affirms that they are with God, not condemned.

Sullivan developed the idea for the memorial amid COVID-19 pandemic discussions on the heightened awareness of mental illness. He has led the effort in consultation with mental health advocates, pastoral leaders and members of the Catholic Charities Loving Outreach to Survivors of Suicide (LOSS) Program, founded by Rev. Charles Rubey.

The shrine is dedicated in honor of Rubey, who has spent 50 of his 60 years in priestly ministry fighting the stigma surrounding suicide and welcoming, supporting and healing countless families as they navigate the complicated grief that follows a suicide loss.

“This beautiful memorial will have a deep impact on families,” said Fr. Rubey. “This compelling effort by the Archdiocese of Chicago shows the Church’s willingness to acknowledge past misunderstandings of suicide, and to stand with survivors and grieve their loss with them. The memorial shows survivors that their loved ones are with God, their lives were sacred and they are included among the faithful.”

In addition to offering a place for personal prayer, the shrine seeks to help reduce the stigma often associated with mental illness and suicide.

“We did not want this memorial hidden away and we were intentional in every detail from the location to the design,” Sullivan said. “This is not something we are ashamed of. It is something we are committed to addressing with compassion, understanding and faith.”

He added, “Mental illness and suicide can leave families feeling isolated. One of the most important things we can do as a community is acknowledge their grief, remember their loved ones, and walk with them on the path toward healing.”

…

(Source: Archdiocese of Chicago, June 24, 2026; underlining added.)

Certainly, suicide is a sensitive subject, as it touches very deep wounds and generates unspeakable grief among those who have relatives or friends who ended their own lives in this way.

By no means does the present writer mean to come across as insensitive, unreasonable, or callous. For the sake of truth and accuracy, however, it is important not to speak about the subject only one-sidedly, but that the whole truth be presented, even the unpopular and uncomfortable points.

A Sin Worse Than Homicide

First of all, we must state in no uncertain terms that, far from being a sure ticket to Heaven, suicide is per se a mortal sin, directly opposed to the Fifth Commandment: “Thou shalt not kill” (Ex 20:13; Lk 18:20). This means that suicide does not only have a victim but also a perpetrator.

A popular Dominican moral theology manual explains the matter succinctly:

1852. Suicide.—Suicide, or the killing of oneself, is, like homicide in general, of various kinds.

(a) Thus, in reference to the intention, it is voluntary or involuntary, according as it proceeds from knowledge and choice, or as it is committed without realization of what is done or without the intention to produce death. Examples of involuntary suicide are a person who is temporarily insane on account of impending calamity and drowns himself, and a person who, attempting to frighten another by pretending to hang himself, actually strangles to death. It would be a mistake to say that no person who commits suicide is free, but no doubt a large percentage of those who kill themselves are not responsible for their act.

(b) In reference to the mode, suicide is direct, if that which is done tends from its nature to the death of the person who does it (e.g., firing a pistol into one’s brain); it is indirect, if that which is done tends from its nature to another end (e.g., to struggle with a criminal who is firing a revolver). Direct suicide is committed in many ways, all of which can be reduced to positive (e.g., the eating or drinking of deadly poison) and negative (e.g., the refusal to eat or drink anything).

…

1854. Sinfulness of Suicide.—Voluntary and direct suicide is always a most grave sin, if committed without due authority (i.e., the command of God).

(a) It is a grave injury against the rights of God, for it usurps His authority, refuses Him the service He desires, spurns the gift He has bestowed, dishonors the image of God (Gen., ix. 6), and destroys the property of God: “Thou, O Lord, hast the power of life and death” (Wis., xvi. 13).

(b) It is an offense against society, for the community has a right to be benefited by the lives of its members, and to receive a return for the protection and assistance it affords them. Moreover, death by suicide is usually felt as a great sorrow and disgrace by the relatives of the departed, and it has a demoralizing effect on many persons of suggestible minds. The fact that the death of this or that man is not felt as a loss by a family or the State, but rather as a relief, is no argument; for if suicide were left to human decision, how many fatal mistakes would be made (see 460)! Persons valuable to society would rashly kill themselves, fearing in a mood of depression that they were worthless; others who could contribute nothing in material ways would destroy themselves and deprive their fellow-men of an example of fortitude, or at least of the opportunity of showing charity and mercy to the needy.

(c) Direct and voluntary suicide is a sin against the deepest natural inclination, for self-preservation is called the first law of nature (see 298), and also against that love of self which charity requires (see 1136 sqq.). Since charity to self is more obligatory than charity to the neighbor, suicide is a more serious sin than other forms of homicide. Nor is it excused by the desire of some good for self. The suicide does not better himself by his act, for, since he has not fulfilled his trust in this life, what can he expect in the next life? He escapes the lesser evils of physical miseries or moral temptations, but he incurs the greater evils of physical death and of moral cowardice and defeat, to say nothing of his punishment in the hereafter.

1855. Cooperation in Suicide.—Cooperation in suicide has the guilt of unlawful homicide. (a) Thus, those who incite, advise, command, or assist another to commit suicide are guilty of moral murder. (b) Those who carry out together a suicide pact are guilty both of suicide and of moral murder.

…

1861. Canonical Penalties for Suicide.—(a) Those who attempt suicide are irregular _ex delicto_ (Canon 985, n. 5). (b) If they die, they are not given ecclesiastical burial unless they gave signs of repentance before death (Canon 1240, n, 3), and, if they recover, they are subject to various penalties (Canon 2350, Sec. 2). (c) If it is doubtful whether a person committed suicide, or was responsible, the doubt is decided in his favor, provided no scandal is likely.

(Rev. John A. McHugh and Rev. Charles J. Callan, Moral Theology: A Complete Course Based on St. Thomas Aquinas and the Best Modern Authorities [New York, NY: Joseph F. Wagner, Inc., 1958], nn. 1852-1861; underlining added.)

And so the killing of self is, first and foremost, a terrible sin in and of itself. Culpability for it can, of course, be lessened or even taken away entirely on account of legitimate factors that diminish or destroy culpability.

However, Church law is clear that the general rule is that those who commit suicide with deliberate intent are to be refused Catholic burial (funeral rites), as we will now see.

Suicide, Catholic Burial, and Canon Law

The Church’s Code of Canon Law, solemnly approved and promulgated by Pope Benedict XV in 1917, states:

Canon 1240

§ 1. Unless they gave before death a sign of repentance, the following are deprived of ecclesiastical burial: … 3°. Those who killed themselves by deliberate counsel [deliberato consilio].

(Source: 1917 Code of Canon Law; Latin original here.)

Strictly speaking, the Vatican II Church has retained this prohibition of Catholic funeral rites for those who died by self-inflicted murder, but it has buried it in ambiguous language:

Can. 1184 §1. Unless they gave some signs of repentance before death, the following must be deprived of ecclesiastical funerals: … 3/ other manifest sinners who cannot be granted ecclesiastical funerals without public scandal of the faithful.

(Source: 1983 Code of Canon Law; Latin original here.)

Regarding the prohibition of Catholic burial for those guilty of suicide, the canon law professor Fr. Henri Ayrinhac explains:

Suicides who have taken their own life with full deliberation. The application of the law supposes certainty of the crime, full responsibility for it and absence of repentance before death. When the first condition exists the other two are presumed except for some proof to the contrary but the Church would not require very strong evidence and in all cases of doubt it would permit at least a private funeral. Leniency here will not ordinarily give scandal as many people consider suicide as an almost sure sign of mental disorder.

(Very Rev. H. A. Ayrinhac, Administrative Legislation in the New Code of Canon Law [London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1930], p. 88, n. 79)

In addition to Fr. Ayrinhac’s words, we already saw that Frs. McHugh and Callan suppose that “no doubt a large percentage of those who kill themselves are not responsible for their act” (n. 1852).

Nevertheless, it seems clear that such an opinion, as legitimate as it obviously is, necessarily involves a certain amount of conjecture, for it concerns the order of fact and not of law or doctrine. Whether, or to what extent, a particular individual who has killed himself was morally responsible for his act, is known to God alone. We can surmise, we can hope, we can assume; but ultimately we cannot know without a special revelation from God.

Besides, whereas Fr. Ayrinhac was writing in the first half of the 20th century, we now live in a society in which sin and crime are habitually pathologized, meaning they are quickly relegated to the status of disease/disorder rather than acknowledged as true sin or crime. (At the same time, genuine diseases/disorders are often declared to be normal and healthy, such as same-sex attraction and similar issues.)

Fr. Charles A. Kerin, a Sulpician priest who wrote a dissertation on denial of Catholic burial, appears to take an even more tolerant position, stating that full deliberation “is not to be presumed but to be proved. When full deliberation is not evident, Christian burial is not to be denied on the grounds of culpable suicide” (The Privation Of Christian Burial: An Historical Synopsis And Commentary [Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1941], p. 203).

However, Kerin also notes that while full deliberation should not be presumed, neither should insanity:

The presence of insanity is very often alleged as proof for the lack of full deliberation. However, insanity must be proved, not presumed. Insanity is not to be presumed even in doubtful cases, that is, when it is not certain whether insanity was the cause of the act. … The necessity of proving insanity arises from the law, for once the act is established as suicide, it is guilt, and not insanity, that must be presumed.

(Kerin, The Privation Of Christian Burial, pp. 204-205)

Thus we note that even before Vatican II, the Catholic Church, while being clear and firm in her doctrine, was nevertheless willing to be reasonably lenient in the practical order: People who had committed suicide were to be denied a Catholic burial (and funeral Mass) only if it was certain and well-known that the sinner in question had deliberately intended to kill himself and was morally responsible for doing so. In cases of doubt, “at least a private funeral” could be permitted (Ayrinhac).

Chicago’s ‘Canonization’ of Suicide

These considerations leave a lot of leeway practically, but apparently not enough for the Archdiocese of Chicago. They are on a mission, it seems, to equate committing suicide with going to Heaven — but not, of course, without a tiny amount of plausible deniability thrown in.

Notice that the press release quoted earlier says that the Church “now recognizes that many who die by suicide suffer from mental illness and unbearable pain. The Church now embraces these individuals and affirms that they are with God, not condemned” (underlining added). Strictly speaking, therefore, the Chicago archdiocese is not saying that all people who commit suicide go to heaven, only that many do, and only on account of diminished culpability due to mental illness.

Not surprisingly, however, the strict letter of the press release quickly gives way to a practical reality that entirely omits this nuance. This reduction of the rather refined ‘those who killed themselves without being fully culpable’ into a categorical ‘those who killed themselves’ must be fully intended by the diocese, for not only is it entirely foreseeable, but at the dedication ceremony itself the archdiocesan spokesmen facilitated this precise conflation.

In the video clip above, we find Fr. Rubey speaking quite generally of people who commit suicide as being “with God” and “no longer rejected” — making no reference to reduced culpability.

The memorial plaque installed in the cemetery contains a lot of words, but not a single one about mental illness or a lack of full deliberation:

The ‘At Peace’ memorial plaque at the cemetery in Hillside, Illinois
(image source: Chicago Catholic via Facebook; cropped)

Similarly, Bp. Sullivan, whose words are quoted in an article published by the Chicago Catholic paper, went one step further and implied that regardless of culpability, people who kill themselves will still be saved because God is greater than our sins:

“Mental illness and suicide can leave families feeling isolated,” he added. “One of the most important things we can do as a community is acknowledge their grief, remember their loved ones, and walk with them on the path toward healing.”

The Lord is with us in times of terrible pain, such as losing a loved one to suicide, Bishop Sullivan said.

“We are never, ever alone,” he said. “And God’s love is always greater than we are. The truth is, I cannot do anything to force God to love me. But on the other hand, I cannot do anything to prevent God from loving me. God’s love is a gift. And our challenge is to respond to that love, not to try to earn it. I really believe that God’s love for us is far greater than any of our faults and our failings. I believe that God’s love is greater than our inadequacies. God loves us with our gifts and our talents and our faults and our failings, and it is a love that is freely given.”

Obviously, if the argument is that “God’s love is greater than our sins” and therefore we are forgiven, then this must apply also to the sin of self-murder. However, the argument is specious, of course. Yes, God’s love is greater than our sins, but this does not mean everyone’s sins are thereby automatically forgiven. It simply means that God redeemed us from our sins and that He provided us with the means to have our sins forgiven and His grace infused into our souls so that we can be truly holy and, thus justified in His sight by His merits communicated to our souls, can ultimately be saved.

The question, then, isn’t whether God is greater than our faults and sins, but whether the sanctifying grace of the God-who-is-greater-than-sin has been expelled from the soul of the man who kills himself, precisely by the act of suicide. That is the question, and that of course is not addressed by Mr. Sullivan.

Aside from the specific guilt of suicide, there is a related issue that is being entirely glossed over by Chicago’s pseudo-Catholic authorities: Did the person who killed himself with limited culpability not have other sins, too? Even if the suicidal deed itself was not a mortal sin in a particular case on account of the absence of full knowledge or consent, what about all the other sins the person committed? Is the mere fact that someone killed himself without being fully culpable, enough to guarantee salvation? That would be absurd, but the Archdiocese of Chicago suggests as much: They “are with God, their lives were sacred and they are included among the faithful.”

Thus we can say without exaggeration that this move by the post-Catholics occupying the Archdiocese of Chicago diabolically makes suicide into a ‘sacrament’ that all but guarantees Eternal Beatitude.

Even aside from all these considerations, just practically speaking, what message does a grand public monument to self-killers send?

Of course one wants to bring compassion to friends and family members of someone who killed himself, but at what expense? And is it really compassionate to pretend that all who forcibly end their own lives receive God’s mercy and go to Heaven?

It is true that there is a certain stigma associated with suicide, and that is a good thing. After all, it can act as a deterrent, for example. We may never know how many people did not kill themselves because they did not want to bring shame, grief, and other problems into the lives of their surviving family members.

If we truly want to prevent self-killings, will it be more helpful to treat suicide as the foul thing that it is, with eternal punishment following upon it (objectively speaking), or to whitewash it as effectively a sure way to be forever embraced by one’s loving Creator?

No one is more compassionate than Jesus Christ, and yet He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the traitor He foreknew would end by hanging himself in despair (see Mt 27:5), as the “son of perdition” who is “lost” (Jn 17:12), of whom it would have been better if he “had not been born” (Mark 14:21); and the Apostles, choosing a successor to the Iscariot, said that “Judas hath by transgression fallen, that he might go to his own place” (Acts 1:25). We must remember that what sealed Judas’ fate was not his betrayal of Christ but his subsequent suicide. St. Peter, too, had betrayed Christ, but unlike the Iscariot he did not despair but hoped in Christ and sought His forgiveness.

Even the famous case of St. John Vianney telling a widow that her unbelieving husband, who had jumped off a bridge and killed himself, was saved, does not presume on God’s mercy, for the saintly priest explained by what mechanism he was able to escape mortal sin and hell:

His soul is in purgatory and you must pray for him. Between the parapet of the bridge and the water he had the time to make a dying act of repentance. It was the Most Blessed Virgin who won him his pardon. Do you remember the Month of Mary you had put up in your room? Your husband may have been irreligious, but he didn’t try to stop you; sometimes he even joined in your prayers. It was that which earned him mercy in his final hour.

(Francis Trochu, The Curé d’Ars: A Shorter Biography [Westminster, MD: The Newman Press, 1955], p. 180)

Obviously such a scenario as this will be extraordinary and rare, and the only way St. John Vianney could have known it was on account of a special revelation from God. The saint did not pretend that all suicide victims suffer from a disease or disorder that reduces their culpability so that what would otherwise be a mortal sin is thereby rendered venial at worst; rather, he made clear that the woman’s husband had, aided by grace, repented in his last moments and found forgiveness for all of his mortal sins.

Final Remarks

Anyone who thinks we are being too hard on the Archdiocese of Chicago should take note of the following anecdote. It concerns Fr. Rubey and outdoes all of the preceding evidence we have discussed, and not in a good way:

Early on in his ministry, Rubey developed his own ritual service to bless places where people died by suicide.

“I’ve been on high rises. I’ve been on railroad tracks. I’ve been in basements, offices, and all that to bless the place because I honestly believe it’s holy and sacred,” he said. “They’re not in hell. They’re with God.”

(Duriga, “Archdiocese dedicates first-ever memorial to those lost to suicide”)

This is the ultimate confirmation that the intent is to turn suicide from being a mortal sin into a quasi-sacrament, and that the ‘mental illness’ restriction is only a temporary bridge to be used in the short term to get from the one to the other with minimal interference. Now even the place in which someone commits murder — the murder of self — is declared to be “holy and sacred”!

This is the Vatican II religion’s cult of man at work.

“Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isaias 5:20).

We know what we can expect to see in Chicago in the next months and years: ‘Catholics’ who deliberately and with full awareness hire ‘medical assistance in dying’ and then get a ‘Catholic’ funeral in the archdiocese, perhaps even with burial at Queen of Heaven Cemetery, not far from the monument that mendaciously assures the loved ones they left behind that they are now with God.

Title image source: composite with elements from Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago and Chicago Catholic via Facebook
Licenses: fair use