From Normalizing Deviancy to Normalizing Self-Annihilation

The counterfeit church of conciliarism’s warfare against Catholic Faith, Worship, and Morals in now in a stage where fiends such Blase Cupich, the conciliar “archbishop” of Chicago, Illinois, having successfully cooperated with the late Jorge Mario Bergoglio and those of like mind in this country such as Joseph Tobin and Robert McElroy to normalize sodomy and other forms of deviant perversity, are now attempting to de-stigmatize the act of self-annihilation that is 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.”

Sullivan and Rubey collaborated with nine team members including Milwaukee-based Inspired Artisans to refine the concepts and determine the memorial’s final design, including two original 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. Sculpted in clay before being cast in bronze, the piece presented unique challenges, particularly in creating wings that naturally interacted with the bench while maintaining realistic proportions. The project took approximately 10 months to complete.

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. Each dove was first sculpted in clay and then cast in bronze. (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.)

This is an attempt to provide the relatives and friends of those who have committed suicide with a false sense of assurance that God “understands” why people take their lives and would never condemn someone to hell for all eternity for resorting to self-annihilation in full violation of the binding precepts of the Fifth Commandment. By doing this, of course, the insidious little revolutionary from Nebraska who has been ensconced in power in Chicago for the past eleven years, Cupich, is also giving “hope” to those who are contemplating killing themselves.

While there is a very good and thorough analysis of the moral and canonical prohibitions against suicide by a writer named S.D. Wright, with whose work I have only recently become aware of,  that makes all the proper distinctions and qualifications on this matter (see The Church's teaching on suicide: everything you need to know), I think that it is necessary to elaborate on some facts not covered in the analysis, namely, that, in the objective order of things, is an act of against the efficacy of the graces won for us by Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by the shedding of every single drop of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross on Good Friday that flow into our souls through the loving hands of Our Lady, she who is the Mediatrix of All Graces, to make it possible for those who feel despondent and/or are suffering physically, mentally, spiritually, or morally to rise out of despair and to joyfully bear crosses that God has known from all eternity he would be asked to bear.

Suicide is thus a rejection of the theology of Redemptive Suffering and, as such, and of the following words of Our Blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ:

And he said to all: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. 24 For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it; for he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall save it. 25 For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, and cast away himself? (Luke 9: 23-25.)

This is not a “suggestion,” and for the likes of Blase Cupich and other conciliar revolutionaries to attempt to normalize suicide is to deny the obligation that Catholics have to bear their daily crosses with love, patience, and gratitude as the divinely appointed means given to them by which they can give honor and glory to God, make reparation for their own sins, and provide a powerful example to others that there is nothing we can suffer in this life that is the equal of what one of our least Venial Sins caused His Divine Son to suffer in His Sacred Humanity during His Passion and Death and Good Friday and that caused the Swords of Sorrow to be thrust through and through His Most Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Heart.

Father Francis X. Weninger, S.J., provided a practical consideration of this truth in his reflection on the Feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross (May 3):

Many Saints have sought crosses and sorrows and have earnestly requested God to send them such. I dare not ask so much of you. Do you think, however, that it is too much if I ask you: to carry patiently, the Cross which God lays upon you for your salvation? Himself demands this of you: "He that taketh not up his cross and followeth me is not worthy of me," says He (Mat. x.). And again, He says; "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me " (Luke ix.). The Cross given by Christ must be borne if we wish to follow Him into heaven. In bearing this Cross we must also imitate him so as to carry it with patience. For what does it benefit, when we carry it impatiently, and only when we must? "He that is impatient suffereth damage" (Proverbs xix.), we are assured in holy writ. Because, besides that he, by his impatience, loses the benefit which he would have derived, he makes himself also guilty of punishment. Hence, what must be done? Follow the advice of the pious Thomas a Kempis: "Take up your Cross and follow Christ, and you will enter into everlasting life. He went before you and carried his Cross patiently, He died for you upon the Cross, that you also may carry your Cross and desire to die upon it." If Christ himself gave you a particle of the Cross on which he had hung and which St. Helena found, you would deem yourself happy: but you are far more happy if you carry the Cross God sends you as though you received the entire Cross of Christ. It is neither sufficient nor necessary for your salvation to possess the Cross of Christ, or a particle of it: but it is necessary that you carry your Cross, and that you imitate the Lord's patience.

Jews, heathens and heretics despise the Cross of Christ; true Christians, however, esteem it highly and honor it duly. The Catholics do not worship the holy Cross, but they worship Him who has hung upon it, Christ the Lord, as He was not only man, but also the true God to whom worship is due. They honor the sacred wood on account of Him who died upon it for the salvation of men. To make the sign of the Cross is a mark of honor which we show not only to the holy Cross of the Saviour, but also to the Saviour Himself. Do not omit this sign of honor, as is done in our days by the enemies and despisers of the Cross of Christ, whose end, according to the Apostle, is destruction (Philip iii.). Sign yourself, morning and evening, before and after prayer, and also on other occasions, with the holy Cross, but devoutly, and in memory of the crucified God. "Be not ashamed," exhorts St. Cyril of Jerusalem; "be not ashamed of the Cross of Christ. If somebody hides it, sign your forehead openly with it, that Satan, at the sight of it, may flee with fear and trembling. Make use of this sign when you eat and drink, when you stand and sit, when you walk and speak, in one word, make use of it in all your actions. (Father Francis X. Weninger, S. J., Sermon on the Feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross.)

There will be times in a Catholic’s life when a particular cross seems to be too heavy to bear despite the fact that each cross that we encounter in this passing, mortal vale of tears has been fashioned for us particularly by God Himself for his greater honor and glory and our own sanctification and salvation, a truth illustrated by the lesson contained in the following story, which I will paraphrase, that was told frequently by the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen:

“A man was tired of his carrying his cross.

“So, he went into a religious goods store to search for the cross he believed was the ‘right’ one for him, one that was not as heavy as one that Our Lord had asked him to bear.

“Thus, laying down his cross in the store the man spent over eight and one-half hours looking at thousands of crosses before trying them on for size and weight to determine which was best for him.

“Finally, it was near the store’s closing time that the man seeking the cross that he believed he would be able to carry easier than the one he had been carrying came upon one that looked and felt just right for him.

“The store owner looked at him wryly and asked, ‘Are you sure that one is the best cross for you?’

“Yes,’ the man replied. This is far better for me.

“Smiling the store owner said, ‘Well, that’s the one you came in here with.”

There is simply no cross that is too “heavy” for us God Himself has chosen each cross in our lives to refine us in His refining fire of ineffable love for us sinners to save our souls despite our best efforts frequently to lose them.

As I have noted frequently, over the years, many of the conciliar revolutionaries do not believe that any situation involving a moral choice is a matter of black and white. Thus, there are no moral absolutes but only their own projection onto Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ about what He would teach given the conditions in which we find ourselves at this time. It is with this feat of paganism that the conciliar revolutionaries can equate submerging the social and eternal good of individual human beings into a more “inclusive” system of “thought” that places animals, plants and even inanimate matter on a plane of equal plane with them.

A community “consciousness” premised upon socialistic and pantheistic prescriptions of one kind or another thus replaces the need for the individual pursuit of sanctity and any thought of a Particular Judgment that will be rendered upon individual persons upon the moment of their deaths. The execution of the preborn by chemical and surgical means thus fades into insignificance when compared to the supposedly “larger” “ecological” questions that demanding a “social” response, and this is why, at least in part, that the late Jorge Mario Bergoglio had such an affinity for Communists, including the Chicom monsters of Beijing and their Chinese Patriotic “Catholic” Association. No thought is given to the effects of the sins of individual human beings upon the common good and even upon the physical state of the world for reasons that will be explored in the next section of this commentary.

In other words, the conciliar revolutionaries, adhering to textbook Modernism and its affinity with all forms of evolutionism, including Marxism-Leninism, believe in the annihilation of the individual in favor of a “community” that makes no place for immutable truths to which human beings must adhere to save their souls as members of the Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no true social order. Anyone within the structures of the false conciliar sect that is hideous in the sight of the Most Blessed Trinity who believes that they are getting this toothpaste back in the tomb is, to put it mildly, delusional, and those who ignore these developments in the very false belief that they do not concern them are both irresponsible and intellectually dishonest.

It is really as simple as this: attacks the immutable nature of God and His Divine Revelation lead inevitably to attacks upon each of the Ten Commandments, including the Fifth, Sixth, and Ninth Commandment, which is why Signore Vincenzo Paglia felt free a few years ago to express his support for a Italian law permitting “assisted suicide” even though he is “personally opposed” to the morally repugnant practice. This was all a prelude to the booklet" that has given its direct and indirect endorsement of both direct euthanasia and assisted suicide: 

VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — The president of the regularly scandalous Pontifical Academy for Life has spoken in favor of assisted suicide as possibly being the “greatest common good concretely possible,” contrary to the Catholic Church’s teaching strenuously condemning the practice.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia’s remarks were made during a recent television panel as part of the Perugia journalism festival, for a debate on the end of life entitled “The last trip (towards the end of life).”

While he expressed his personal opposition to practicing assisted suicide, Paglia defended it in principle, citing Pope Francis’ assault on Catholic Tradition in doing so. “Personally, I would not practice suicide assistance,” he said “but I understand that legal mediation may be the greatest common good concretely possible under the conditions we find ourselves in.” (Abp. Paglia defends assisted suicide as 'greatest common good possible' for dying people.)

Interjection Number One:

No civil law that permits a direct attack on innocent human life has any credibility in the eyes  of the true God of Divine Revelation, the Most Blessed Trinity, as to annihilate oneself, whether by oneself or with the “assistance” of others, is a Mortal Sin in the objective order of things against the Fifth Commandment and an open invitation to do away with human beings who are either ignorant about the theology of redemptive suffering and/or unwilling to embrace whatever crosses Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ sends to them until they die. For a supposed “archbishop” to suggest that laws permitting “assisted suicide” are advancing the common good is to make a mockery of the following words written by Pope Leo XIII in Sapientiae Christianae, January 10, 1890, that were quoted on this site just three days ago in "To Resist is a Duty, To Obey a Crime":

But, if the laws of the State are manifestly at variance with the divine law, containing enactments hurtful to the Church, or conveying injunctions adverse to the duties imposed by religion, or if they violate in the person of the supreme Pontiff the authority of Jesus Christ, then, truly, to resist becomes a positive duty, to obey, a crime; a crime, moreover, combined with misdemeanor against the State itself, inasmuch as every offense leveled against religion is also a sin against the State. Here anew it becomes evident how unjust is the reproach of sedition; for the obedience due to rulers and legislators is not refused, but there is a deviation from their will in those precepts only which they have no power to enjoin. Commands that are issued adversely to the honor due to God, and hence are beyond the scope of justice, must be looked upon as anything rather than laws. You are fully aware, venerable brothers, that this is the very contention of the Apostle St. Paul, who, in writing to Titus, after reminding Christians that they are "to be subject to princes and powers, and to obey at a word," at once adds: "And to be ready to every good work."Thereby he openly declares that, if laws of men contain injunctions contrary to the eternal law of God, it is right not to obey them. In like manner, the Prince of the Apostles gave this courageous and sublime answer to those who would have deprived him of the liberty of preaching the Gospel: "If it be just in the sight of God to hear you rather than God, judge ye, for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." (Pope Leo XIII, Sapientiae Christianae, January 10, 1890.)

But in this same matter, touching Christian faith, there are other duties whose exact and religious observance, necessary at all times in the interests of eternal salvation, become more especially so in these our days. Amid such reckless and widespread folly of opinion, it is, as We have said, the office of the Church to undertake the defense of truth and uproot errors from the mind, and this charge has to be at all times sacredly observed by her, seeing that the honor of God and the salvation of men are confided to her keeping. But, when necessity compels, not those only who are invested with power of rule are bound to safeguard the integrity of faith, but, as St. Thomas maintains: "Each one is under obligation to show forth his faith, either to instruct and encourage others of the faithful, or to repel the attacks of unbelievers.'' To recoil before an enemy, or to keep silence when from all sides such clamors are raised against truth, is the part of a man either devoid of character or who entertains doubt as to the truth of what he professes to believe. In both cases such mode of behaving is base and is insulting to God, and both are incompatible with the salvation of mankind. This kind of conduct is profitable only to the enemies of the faith, for nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly as the lack of courage on the part of the good. Moreover, want of vigor on the part of Christians is so much the more blameworthy, as not seldom little would be needed on their part to bring to naught false charges and refute erroneous opinions, and by always exerting themselves more strenuously they might reckon upon being successful. After all, no one can be prevented from putting forth that strength of soul which is the characteristic of true Christians, and very frequently by such display of courage our enemies lose heart and their designs are thwarted. Christians are, moreover, born for combat, whereof the greater the vehemence, the more assured, God aiding, the triumph: "Have confidence; I have overcome the world." Nor is there any ground for alleging that Jesus Christ, the Guardian and Champion of the Church, needs not in any manner the help of men. Power certainly is not wanting to Him, but in His loving kindness He would assign to us a share in obtaining and applying the fruits of salvation procured through His grace.

The chief elements of this duty consist in professing openly and unflinchingly the Catholic doctrine, and in propagating it to the utmost of our power. For, as is often said, with the greatest truth, there is nothing so hurtful to Christian wisdom as that it should not be known, since it possesses, when loyally received, inherent power to drive away error. (Pope Leo XIII, Sapientiae Christianae, January 10, 1890.)

There is no need for a “debate” about “end of life” moral issues and/or legislation as the Fifth Commandment is very clear: “Thou shalt not kill.” Period.

As mentioned earlier in this commentary, nothing that we suffer in this passing, mortal vale of tears is the equal of what one of our least Venial Sins caused Our Lord to suffer in His Sacred Humanity during His Passion and Death on the wood of the Holy Cross on Good Friday and that caused Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart to be thrust through with the Fourth through Seventh Swords of Sorrow. We must bear the cross until we die, recognizing that death is a punishment for Original Sin and that whatever pain Our Lord sends us to in our last agony is meant to purify us for the soul’s separation from the body and to minimize, if not entirely, eliminate any need for the departing soul to suffering in Purgatory after death.

Back to the 2023 article dealing with Vincenzo Paglia’s apostasy:

From the very outset of his presentation, Paglia undermined the authority of the Catholic Church to pronounce of matters of truth and morals, stating: “First of all, I would like to clarify that the Catholic Church is not that it has a ready-made, prepackaged package of truths, as if it were a dispenser of truth pills.” (Abp. Paglia defends assisted suicide as 'greatest common good possible' for dying people.)

Interjection Number Two:

Yes, the Catholic Church is the sole repository and infallible explicator of Divine Revelation and she infallible and authoritative interpreter and teaching of the Natural Law. No one may dissent from what Holy Mother Church commands, and it is impossible her to command her children to adhere to error:

As for the rest, We greatly deplore the fact that, where the ravings of human reason extend, there is somebody who studies new things and strives to know more than is necessary, against the advice of the apostle. There you will find someone who is overconfident in seeking the truth outside the Catholic Church, in which it can be found without even a light tarnish of error. Therefore, the Church is called, and is indeed, a pillar and foundation of truth. You correctly understand, venerable brothers, that We speak here also of that erroneous philosophical system which was recently brought in and is clearly to be condemned. This system, which comes from the contemptible and unrestrained desire for innovation, does not seek truth where it stands in the received and holy apostolic inheritance. Rather, other empty doctrines, futile and uncertain doctrines not approved by the Church, are adopted. Only the most conceited men wrongly think that these teachings can sustain and support that truth. (Pope Gregory XVI, Singulari Nos, May 25, 1834.)

In the Catholic Church Christianity is Incarnate. It identifies Itself with that perfect, spiritual, and, in its own order, sovereign society, which is the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ and which has for Its visible head the Roman Pontiff, successor of the Prince of the Apostles. It is the continuation of the mission of the Savior, the daughter and the heiress of His Redemption. It has preached the Gospel, and has defended it at the price of Its blood, and strong in the Divine assistance and of that immortality which has been promised it, It makes no terms with error but remains faithful to the commands which  it has received, to carry the doctrine of Jesus Christ to the uttermost limits of the world and to the end of time, and to protect it in its inviolable integrity. (Pope Leo XIII, A Review of His Pontificate, March 19, 1902.)

For the teaching authority of the Church, which in the divine wisdom was constituted on earth in order that revealed doctrines might remain intact for ever, and that they might be brought with ease and security to the knowledge of men, and which is daily exercised through the Roman Pontiff and the Bishops who are in communion with him, has also the office of defining, when it sees fit, any truth with solemn rites and decrees, whenever this is necessary either to oppose the errors or the attacks of heretics, or more clearly and in greater detail to stamp the minds of the faithful with the articles of sacred doctrine which have been explained. (Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos, January 6, 1928.)

Let, therefore, the separated children draw nigh to the Apostolic See, set up in the City which Peter and Paul, the Princes of the Apostles, consecrated by their blood; to that See, We repeat, which is 'the root and womb whence the Church of God springs,' not with the intention and the hope that 'the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth' will cast aside the integrity of the faith and tolerate their errors, but, on the contrary, that they themselves submit to its teaching and government. (Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos, January 6, 1928.)

Supernatural truth belongs entirely to the Catholic Church. The Natural Law belongs wholly to her as its authoritative interpreter and infallible explicator.

As we know, however, it becomes relatively easy to dispense with belief in and acceptance of the theology of Redemptive Suffering as the triumph of emotionalism over the serene acceptance of redemptive suffering as the means to expiate the debt owed to God for our own sins and as the means to gain merit to help provide a salutary example to others in the midst of suffering that we suffer with Our Crucified Redeemer and His Sorrowful Mother, she who is the Co-Redemptrix of the human race, is the result of Protestantism and the subsequent rise of Judeo-Masonry. It is no accident that the Protestant Revolution abandoned crucifixes in honor of the barren cross as Protestantism eschews redemptive suffering, thus leading its adherents into believing that pain and suffering must be anesthetized whenever possible. Conciliarism itself has embraced the barren cross in many of its church buildings, symbolic of its own doctrinal and sacramental barrenness that has robbed many Catholics themselves of any understanding of redemptive suffering.

Moreover, many of the conciliar revolutionaries have encouraged “palliative care” and “hospice” for those suffering from chronic or terminal conditions even though the victims of such “care” are being euthanized by having their deaths expedited, something that I discussed at length in

The grown daughter of a man, suffering from cancer, upon whom hospice “care” was forced upon wrote to me recently to explain the experience that she witnessed with her own eyes:

My brother was pressured into signing up for the home hospice program while my Dad was hospitalized for a fall. He was set for discharge and was waiting for a very long time for a nurse to come with the wheelchair, as they do not let you walk out on your own accord, and as they were taking so long, my Dad got a bit nervous. Over the last year, he had started getting very excited in situations like this.  So, my Dad went to the bathroom, and while sitting on the toilet, he started to tremble. My brother called a nurse, and this set into action a whole series of events that led my father into the home hospice program.
My brother never really understood what home hospice was. He thought they would give him a ride home, a more comfortable ride than trying to get him into our old Oldsmobile, and that a nurse would show up twice a week to help with a shower. No one ever sat down with my brother to explain the implications of the home hospice program.  In fact, the Nigerian doctor made him sign the papers while standing in the hallway! He was not aware that he was signing away all future rights for my father to see his doctors and make future emergency room or hospital visits!

But back to my father trembling on the toilet. 

A battleax nurse arrived to proclaim, that the cancer must have now gotten into the brain and that is why he is having a seizure (my brother is convinced he started trembling as he got anxious waiting forever for the wheelchair). This was never proved and they never gave my brother the results of the CT scan they did on his head from the fall, even though he asked for it multiple times.

So then the hospital home hospice people arrived quickly on the scene. The RN of this program wrote out several prescriptions!  Yes, the RN did, not a doctor.  And they gave my brother several prescriptions.  Despite the fact that my father did not have pain, he was given opioids (the Brett Favre pain pills my brother said); and then a medicine for seizures, (even though he had only been trembling); and then something they my brother to give him when he started “the death breath”. What a callous evil witch! My brother was exhausted and didn’t really catch on. They said to continue the seizure medicine at home and not to abruptly discontinue as they had started at hospital. 

Well, the first day my brother gave it to my father and it left my father in such a state of near comatose that my brother became scared out of his wits. He called me, nearly crying!  This is when my brother started reading all the prescription prospectuses which clearly stated “do not combine this seizure medicine with an opioid or sudden death will occur!”

So clearly, if my brother had not paid attention and had just blindly followed the RN, my father would have died the end of March! It is as if they were happy for this to happen! It is as if they want you to kill off your supposed loved one! At the very least, they MAKE IT EASY TO DO SO and nobody would ask any questions!!! So my brother stopped giving him all medication. 

Then, when I arrived, a home hospice nurse came while I was there, and she was annoyed with my brother for stopping the medication. She was just interested in filling out her forms and getting her hours in.

My father asked for a urinal while the home hospice nurse arrived and she said, cruelly, “Why don’t you put on a diaper?

Responding, I said, “Because we are here precisely to help him, not have him sit all day in a wet diaper!

Well, after the nurse left, I started researching, and we decided to call her and tell her we were opting out of the program. She was annoyed with us!! She was an evil woman, a death nurse, cold and callous.
Later when my Dad was in a very bad state near in a hospital before he died, those attending him did take him to a different hospice from the hospital as they had to free up a bed, and my brother could not take him home, but he was there less than 12 hours before he passed away, and he was not given anything we are told. (But then you never know, do you?). My brother told them about the home hospice experience and the women at the desk just started crying, and how horrible.  Apparently, there are many hospice programs, but the home hospice we experienced was a part of [name omitted] which are notoriously bad in [a Western city.]

Conciliar revolutionaries such as Vincenzo Paglia and Blase Cupich have eschewed any mention of redemptive suffering in favor of dying “comfortably” and in as “little pain as possible” as this but an indication of their loss of the sensus Catholicus, and Cupich, for one, is now in the insidious business of making intention suicide as “understandable” in the effort to remove whatever remaining shame and stigma rightly belong to what was once considered cowardly scandalous: the taking of our own lives.

Although it is morally permissible to alleviate pain, it is not morally permissible to do so to such an extent that one slips into a state of unconsciousness or a state of euphoria that robs one of the ability to see clearly that the end is near and that an effort must be made to ward off the enemies of our salvation and to prepare to meet Christ the King, Our Divine Judge, at the fearful moment of the Particular Judgment.  One should pray daily for the gift of full consciousness and lucidity of speech to make his last confession and to receive, if possible, Holy Viaticum before dying. Indeed, it is paramount to put Last Things first in the considerations of medical care.

Contrast the Blase Cupich’s insidiously implicit eschewal of redemptive suffering with two prayers found in The Raccolta:

Lord Jesus Christ, who willest that no man should perish, and to whom supplication is never made without the hope of mercy, for Thou saidst with Thine own holy and blessed lips: All things whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, shall be done unto you”; I ask of Thee, O Lord, for Thy holy Name’s sake, to grant me at the hour of death full consciousness and the power of speech, sincere contrition for my sins, firm hope and perfect charity that I may be able to say unto The with a clean heart: Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit: Thou hast redeemed me, O God of truth, who art blessed for ever and ever. Amen. (S. C. of the Holy Office, Jude 5, 1913; S.P. Ap., Dec. 12, 1933 and June 14, 1949. As found in The Raccolta: A Manual of Indulgences, Prayers and Devotions Enriched with Indulgences: approved by Pope Pius XII, May 30, 1951, and published in English by Benziger Brothers, New York, 1957, Number 644, p. 517. An indulgence of three years once a day.)

My journey toward eternity, dear Lord, is encompassed round about by powerful enemies of my soul. I live in fear and trembling especially at the thought of the hour of death, on which my eternity will depend, and of the fearful struggle that the devil will then have to wage against me, knowing that little time is left for him to accomplish my eternal ruin. I desire, therefore, O Lord, to prepare myself for it from this hour, by offering Thee this day, in view of my last hour, those protestations of faith and love for Thee, which are so effectual in repressing and bringing to naught all the crafty and wicked arts of the enemy and which I resolve to oppose to him at that moment of such grave consequence, even though he should dare alone to attack with his deceits the peace and tranquility of my spirit.

I N.N., in the presence of the Most Holy Trinity, the blessed Virgin Mary, my holy Guardian Angel and the entire heavenly host, protest that I wish to live and die under the standard of the Holy Cross. I firmly believe all that our Holy Mother, the Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church, believes and teaches. It is my steadfast intention to die in this holy faith, in which all the holy Martyrs, Confessors and Virgins of Christ have died, as well as all those who have saved their souls.

If the devil should tempt me to despair because of the multitude and grievousness of my sins, I protest that from this day forth I firmly hope in the infinite mercy of God, which will not suffer itself to be overcome by my sins, and in the Precious Blood of Jesus which has washed them all away.

If the devil should assail me with temptation to presumption by reason of the small amount of good which by the help of God I may have been able to accomplish, I confess from this day forth that I deserve hell a thousand times by my sins and I entrust myself wholly to the infinite goodness of God, through Whose grace alone I am what I am.

Finally, if the evil spirit should suggest to me that the pains inflicted upon me by our Lord in that last hour of my life are too heavy to bear, I protest now that all will be as nothing in comparison with the punishments I have deserved throughout life. I thank God that He should deign to give me by these sufferings an opportunity in this life to discharge my debt to Him, which I should have to pay hereafter in the pains of purgatory.

In the bitterness of my soul I call to remembrance all my years; I see my iniquities, I confess them and detest them. Ashamed and sorrowful I turn to Thee, my God, my Creator and my Redeemer. Forgive me, O Lord, by the multitude of Thy mercies; forgive Thy servant whom Thou hast redeemed by Thy Precious Blood.

My God, I turn to Thee, I call upon Thee, I trust in Thee; to Thine infinite goodness I commit the entire reckoning of my life. I have sinned exceedingly; enter not into judgment with Thy servant, who surrenders to Thee and confesses his guilt. Of myself I cannot make satisfaction unto Thee for my countless sins; I have not wherewith to pay Thee, and my debt is infinite. But Thy Son hath shed His Blood for me, and greater than all mine iniquity is Thy mercy.

O Jesus, be my Saviour! At the hour of my fearful crossing to eternity put to flight the enemy of my soul; grant me grace to overcome every difficulty, Thou who alone doest mighty wonders.

Lord, according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies I shall enter into Thy dwelling place. Trusting in Thy pity, I commend my spirit into Thy hands!

May the Blessed Virgin Mary and my Guardian Angel accompany my soul into the heavenly country. Amen. (An indulgence of 3 years. A plenary indulgence on the usual conditions for the daily recitation of this prayer for a month. (S.P. Ap., Feb. 6, 1934 and May 15, 1937. As found in The Raccolta: A Manual of Indulgences, Prayers and Devotions Enriched with Indulgences: approved by Pope Pius XII, May 30, 1951, and published in English by Benziger Brothers, New York, 1957, Number 646, pp. 519-522. An indulgence of three years, plenary if said daily for a month.)

The sufferings of this present life will pass.

Christ the King will triumph over His enemies in our world of naturalism and in the the counterfeit church of conciliarism.

Every extra moment we spend in prayer before Our King in the Most Blessed Sacrament (in those relatively few places where Our Lord is to be found abiding in tabernacles awaiting our praise, thanks, actions of reparation and petitions, and every extra set of mysteries of Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary that we pray will help us to be more and more conformed to the likeness of Our Divine Redeemer, Who endured the Cross, heedless of Its shame, to redeem us and to make us members of His Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no true social order.

Ave Crux, Spes Unica!

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, triumph soon!

Viva Cristo Rey! Vivat Christus Rex!

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint Mark the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saint Praxedes, pray for us.               

Appendix A

Dom Prosper Gueranger on Saint Praxedes

On this day Pudentiana’s angelic sister at length obtained from her Spouse release from bondage, and from the burden of exile that weighed so heavily on this last scion of a holy and illustrious stock. New races, unknown to her fathers when they laid the world at the feet of Rome, now governed the Eternal City. Nero and Domitian had been actuated by a tyrannical spirit; but the philosophical Cæsars showed how absolutely they misconceived the destinies of the great city. The salvation of Rome lay in the hands of a different dynasty: a century back, Praxedes’ grandfather, more legitimate inheritor of the traditions of the Capitol than all the Emperors present or to come, hailed in his guest, Simon Bar-Jona, the ruler of the future. Host of the Prince of the Apostles was a title handed down by Pudens to his posterity: for in the time of Pius I, as in that of St. Peter, his house was still the shelter of the Vicar of Christ. Left the sole heiress of such traditions, Praxedes, after the death of her beloved sister, converted her palaces into Churches, which resounded day and night with divine praises, and where pagans hastened in crowds to be baptized. The policy of Antoninus respected the dwelling of a descendant of the Cornelii; but his adopted son, Marcus Aurelius, would make no such exception. An assault was made upon the title of Praxedes, and many Christians were taken and put to the sword. The virgin, overpowered with grief at seeing all slain around her, and herself untouched, turned to God and besought him that she might die. Her body was laid with those of her relatives in the cemetery of her grandmother, Priscilla. The following is the short notice given by the Church:

Praxedes was a Roman virgin and sister of the virgin Pudentiana. When the Emperor Marcus Antoninus persecuted the Christians, she devoted both her time and her wealth to consoling them, and doing them every charitable service in her power. Some she concealed in her house: others she encouraged to firmness of faith. She buried the dead, and saw that those who were imprisoned wanted for nothing. But at length being unable to bear the grief caused by such a wholesale butchery of the Christians, she prayed God, that if it were expedient for her to die he would take her away from so much evil. Her prayer was heard, and on the 12th of the Calends of August, she was called to heaven, to receive the reward of her charity. Her body was buried by the priest Pastor in the tomb where lay her father and her sister Pudentiana, in the cemetery of Priscilla, on the Salarian Way.

Mother Church is ever grateful to thee, O Praxedes! Thou hast long been in the enjoyment of thy divine spouse, and still thou continuest the traditions of thy noble family, for the benefit of the Saints on earth. When, in the eighth and ninth centuries, the martyrs, exposed to the profanations of the Lombards, were raised from their tombs and brought within the walls of the eternal City, Paschal I sought hospitality for them, where Peter had found it in the first century. What a day was that 20th of July 817, when, leaving the Catacombs, 2300 of these heroes of Christ came to seek in the title of Praxedes the repose which the barbarians had disturbed! What a tribute Rome offered thee, O Virgin, on that day! Can we do better than unite our homage with that of this glorious band, coming on the day of thy blessed feast, thus to acknowledge thy benefits? Descendant of Pudens and Priscilla, give us thy love of Peter, thy devotedness to the Church, thy zeal for the Saints of God, whether militant still on earth or already reigning in glory. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, Feast of Saint Praxedes, July 21.)