#155: Hope After Suicide—Father Chris Alar, MIC (Free Version)

Suicide is a pandemic today. Most people are inclined to disbelieve how bad the problem is. Father Chris Alar, MIC, can relate. He didn’t give suicide too much thought.

Until his beloved grandmother killed herself at home.

That traumatic loss, after many years of confusion and grief, led by God’s providence, to his call to the priesthood. The author and preacher wrote a kind of handbook for friends and loved ones of those who have taken their own lives. It’s titled After Suicide: There’s Hope for Them and For You.

If you know and love someone who commited suicide or if you or someone close to you has thought about it for whatever reason, this riveting conversation is for you.

In this episode you will learn

• Why the teaching of the Church has been so misunderstood
• How the practice of the Church of forbidding a Christian funeral or burial in consecrated ground does NOT presume the eternal loss of the deceased person’s soul
• The balance of justice, mercy, and new insights from psychiatry, shed light on the reasons why we can have hope for those lost to suicide
• The relevant passages in the Catechism of the Catholic Church
• Why the private revelations from Christ to St. Faustina and the Divine Mercy bear directly onto the issue of praying for the dead
• How to understand the mystery of time in light of eternity regarding the efficacy of our prayers

Resources mentioned in this episode

• After Suicide: There’s Hope for Them and For You by Father Chris Alar, MIC and Brother Jason Lewis, MIC
• Hope When Hope Seems Lost, Episode 75 of the Patrick Coffin Show featuring Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, MD.
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, Relevant sections: 1859, 2281, 2282, 2283
• TED talk by CA Highway Sgt. Kevin Briggs on talking people out of suicide on the Golden Gate Bridge

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Join the Conversation

Am I committed to praying for those lost to suicide, and to comfort those they leave behind?