One of the reasons we have rules is to help us guide our decision-making when circumstances make it difficult to think clearly. The horrific murder of the Sueppel family by their husband-father Steven, who then finally succeeded in killing himself, is nothing if not a difficult circumstance. My read, in any case, of 1983 CIC 1184.1.3, in light of the gruesome facts of this case, leads me to conclude that Steven Sueppel should be denied ecclesiastical funeral rites.
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Requiescat in pace.
1 comment:
Killing someone with a baseball bat is a brutal, deliberate thing. His wife and kids must have screamed and tried to get away but he kept on until they were dead. Perhaps he was insane, perhaps he was possessed. At the very least he was a narcisist who saw his wife and family as extensions of himself. What a horrible thing. If only he'd had the courage to go to jail and pay for what he did.
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