There's More Than One Way to Abuse a Parishioner

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An article on Yahoo Sports caught my attention this evening. It was about a young man, a former standout football player in high school, who committed suicide. If the parents didn't have enough grieving to do with that, things were made even worse at their son's funeral. First, his high school football coach defied the family's request and showed up. Y'know, even as heartless as our current president seems to be, at least he had the decency to respect John McCain's wishes and not attend the Senator's funeral. But not this football coach. No, he showed up despite being asked to not come. Worse, after he left, he did pull a Donald Trump and took to social media, writing the following remarks: I was just asked to leave a funeral by a family member of a deceased football player. If you need someone to blame, I'm your man, I'm your fall guy. This is how society is when things go not as planned. We blame others for our own shortcomings. He was fired by the high school where he coached. If that wasn't enough, the priest who -- boy is this a misnomer -- delivered the eulogy was nothing short of demonic. There's more than one way to abuse a parishioner, and this guy showed it. Instead of offering words of comfort to the grieving family, he basically condemned the deceased man to Hell. The family went as far as going to the pulpit and asking the priest to STFU, but the priest obstinately refused, continuing to preach against the "evils of suicide" (the family said the priest mentioned the young man's suicide "upwards of six times" and called him a "sinner"), refused to allow the family to eulogize their own son/brother, and even had the organist play music as the casket was removed from the church. The local archdiocese, as with so many other abuse cases in the Catholic church, slapped the priest on the wrist, saying he wouldn't be doing funeral masses for a while. (Yeah, I'll bet he's crying over that.) My cousin killed himself in 1992. My mom's minister did his funeral. Anyone there could tell the minister was uncomfortable in the awkward situation he was put in, eulogizing someone he didn't even know (and didn't even know my aunt, his mother). However, to his credit, he spoke endlessly of God's love and grace, and how He comforts the mourning. None of that Baptist hell-fire "He's going to hell because he killed himself and didn't go to church" garbage. No, he did what a minister is supposed to do: MINISTER. I pray the family finds comfort in the countless people who've contacted them and left messages of encouragement since this became a national news item. I pray the priest finds a heart, too. No more appropriate song I can think of: