August 23, 2024
Catholic Cemeteries of the Diocese of Bridgeport, in cooperation with St. Rose of Lima Church, will hold a Mass for Suicide Healing and Remembrance on September 7 at 5:30 p.m.
“Everyone is invited to attend, regardless of their faith,” said Carolyn Killian, Director of Bereavement. “The Mass is to remember those who have died by suicide and those who are mourning. There are so many people living with incredible sadness after having lost someone they care about to suicide, and it is important as a faith community that we support them in their pain. We need Christ’s presence to bring them comfort.”
The Mass, which will be held at the church on 46 Church Hill Road in Newtown, coincides with the start of National Suicide Prevention Week from September 8 to 14. Many parishes throughout the country have scheduled Masses to pray for those who have died and those who grieve their loss.
Fr. Peter Cipriani, pastor of St. Rose, talked about the significance of the Mass and said: “Imagine a doctor or nurse who is ill, and in the cure — tending to those who are just as ill or more so — they discover they are being healed. When we pray for those whose lives were lost to the illness of suicide, we find that these prayers, inspired by the hope that God has placed in our wounded hearts, are the very balm He uses to fully heal both them and us.”
Killian added, “Mental illness is so misunderstood in our society and the grief process that their loved one’s experience is extraordinarily painful. They experience sadness, incredible pain and guilt because they couldn’t do anything to help their loved ones, no matter how hard they tried.”
The names of the deceased will be placed on the altar in prayer.
The Mass will be celebrated by Fr. Cipriani joined by Fr. Richard Murphy of St. Michael the Archangel in Greenwich.
Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the United States, and according to data from the Centers for Disease Control, almost 50,000 Americans died by suicide in 2022, and another 1.7 million tried to take their lives in 2021.
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