The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-05-18
SUICIDE OR SELF MURDER.

An unhappy DR.. l.. T. Wilson. leading
and wealthy physician of FL Paso, destroyed him
self early this week With a surgical instrumen
he opened the veins in both his arms, cut his throa
! from ear to ear and then stabbed himself Ill the
heart That is to say, with his eyes open, with
knowledge of what he was about to do, and with
full determination to commit this shameful crime
against his God against himself, against his moth
ers son, this wretched man destroys himself. His
friends say he did it in fit of temporary insan-
ity" Nonsense. This "insanity" is Il shroud that
covers a multitude of sins and a legion of the
dead. As well concede that every unnatural crime
which man commits is done in a moment of i'll
sanity. or that all sin which leads to destruction
Of soul and body is the product of diseased mental
ity. You are familiar with a man for years, he
is the average man. sane. intelligent, a of
common sense. You have passed delightful even
ing with him and at 10 o'clock at night, after a
few pleasant hours in his company, you shake
hands with him and bid him good night. The
next morning on your way to your place of work
or business YOU meet an acquaintance who tells you
your friend is dead suicided at 10 80 last night.
Good God, is it possible" Yes. he met with
some business reyerses. his mind gave way, and he
shot himself" Now change it little. Your ac
quaintance tells you your friend is arrested for
forgery You say he must have been insane. But
after his trial he is sentenced to years in the
penitentarv. The Judge is of a different opinion
from you, and the law and the people are with the
Judge If all those who murder themselves be in
sane how is it that, in proportion to the popula-
ton, 80 per cent are non-Catholics! Is there any
thing about this Catholic church that makes for
sanity and level headedness? Yes, there is this
about it. The Catholic church teaches that the
suicide is a murderer, and, with our Blessed Lord
and St. John, the Divine, she holds that T1nur-
derers will not possess the kingdom of God"
She also holds with st. John that those whose
names are not found written in the book of life
cast into the pool of fire, which is the second
death, the death or damnatioI of the soul. There
fore when Catholic cuts his throat, browns or
hangs himself, he must be "out of his mind" or he
is not a Catholic who believes in the teachings of
his church. But there is something more. This
Catholic church owns in every parish, piece of
land, ten, twenty fifty acres, which she pro-
tects and guards with extraordinary and jealous
care This piece of land is blessed by the priest of
God is consecrated by special prayers and special
rites, and in it is raised the emblem of mans re-
Cross of Christ. And because it
is blessed and consecrated the Germans call it
Goods acre" and we a graveyard. by reason of the
awful soIemnity of the place Cut off or separated
from this holy place is plot of ground
which no prayers have been said. 1t remains with
the primitive curse untitled by the church 1t is
called the "potter's fied"-the field of blood-since
the days of Judas the suicide, whose thirty pieces
of silver purchased the original Haceldama or
field of blood. Here, in this gruesome reservation
of Catholic graveyards are deposited the bodies of
suicides unless it be conclusvey proved, not sup
posed that the suicide was mad and therefore ir-
responsible, when he committed the awful act
More than this. No masses are offered up for
the repose of the suicides soul, no prayers are
officially said for the peace of his spirit and his
body is not allowed to be carried through the
door of a Catholic church. And for this reason
The church believes and teaches that the suicide
destroys his soul when he commits murder on him
self and that on the last day. the day of judg-
ment, body and soul will go into hell for all eter-
nifty. 1t is therefore idle to pray for lost soul
and it is not fitting that the dead body of a lost
soul should rest in the same place with the bodies
IF the souls of the faithful departed or receive the
same honors If a combination of untoward events
ever cOnSplfeu TO cOnuOne SUICIDE IL was when the
3orely afflicted Job regretted he was ever born
Yet when his wife appealed to him to "bless Cod
md put an end to himself, he replied: "Thou hast
spoken like one of the foolish women: if we have
received good things at the hands of God why
should we not receive evil"
1t was this Catholic fear Of the hereafter which
stayed the hand of Hamlet when, tempted by sea
If troubles, he meditated self destruction After
,rooding upon his wretched condition when he
vas the living target for the sings and arrows of
outrageous fortune he holds converse with him
elf as to the wisdom of ending all his mseries by
suicide. and then
To die, to sleep;
70 sleep: perchance to dream: ay. there's the rub:
COR in that sleep of death wha. dreams may come
When we have shuffed off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause.
Further down in his soliloquy he almost decides
o do the act and would have done it,
3ut that the dread of something after DEATH