Group Beyond Blue member SurvivorForce started a discussion thread called "Are we damned if we commit suicide?" at Group Beyond Blue on Beliefnet's Community. He wrote: I have heard that some believe suicide is unforgivable, and that God will condemn a person if they commit suicide. Does God not know that we are human, with limits, with needs to escape, and our endurance is maxed? Is it really a sin, or is it a way of coping with an impossible world that has imperfect solutions to imperfect problems?I have wondered that question so many times. My former therapist told me that, with her religious clients, she would often stroke a depressive's fear of hell and eternal damnation as a motivator for hanging in there. It was somewhat successful with me. I was afraid that if I took my life my soul would be trapped in a purgatory of sorts, saddled with the same issues I have now and unable to move on.
But I can't see how God would punish people like my godmother, my Aunt Mary Lou, who simply ran out of hope. I choose to believe that God embraces those persons who, in my opinion, died from their illnesses just as cancer victims died of theirs, that God would show them nothing but loving compassion since he knows how much they suffered, and that they merely wanted the pain to end.
The Catholic Church once condemned all those who took their lives to hell. But they have changed that. Paragraphs 2280 to 2283 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church say this:
Everyone is responsible for his life before God who has given it to him. It is God who remains the sovereign Master of life. We are obligated to accept life gratefully and preserve it for his honor and the salvation of our souls. We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of.
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.
If suicide is committed with the intention of setting an example, especially to the young, it also takes on the gravity of scandal. Voluntary co-operation in suicide is contrary to the moral law.
Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide.
We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives.
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