I don’t usually ask questions like this…

There are 7 suicides in The Bible but it doesn't say about how they were to be judged.

I'm leaning towards the idea that since they were attacked by the devil, they got a get into heaven free card.

Doesn’t really count as suicide, but avoiding burning to death.

I am Catholic. I have never seen this come up in any of the Catholic media (print or electronic) that I read. For a while, we were getting unsolicited deliveries of a very, very conservative (I would say reactionary) Catholic newspaper which seems to want to revoke Vatican II, but even they said nothing about "suicides" in connection with 9/11. Just now, I tried doing a google search, and nothing came up about this question as a theological issue.

Nowadays, Catholics who commit suicide do get a Catholic funeral.

But even if we go back to pre-Vatican II "conservative orthodox" thinking about this, one of the conditions that must be met for someone to be guilty of "mortal sin" is that the person makes a reasoned, free choice to do so. I hardly think running from flames while in a panic is a situation in which anyone is making reasoned conscious choices about anything.

I am pretty sure this was a nonissue.

🤔 I wonder which direction is Humanity leading to!

In earnest, any commoner would want to save self from fire or death, in the mentioned circumstances.

I would assume that suicide [i]in extremis[/i] is permitted. They didn’t exactly commit suicide, they were desperately trying to escape certain death. I don’t see how they could be held religiously responsible for this, but what do I know.

I remember when the plane with the soccer team crashed in the Andes and the people survived by eating the dead passengers, and the Pope absolved them of the sin of cannibalism based on that rationale.

I'm not Catholic but have had many Catholic friends and neighbors over the years. From what I know of their religion and the pope, I can't imagine him considering any of the 9/11 victims to be suicides.

This is my problem with religions...in this case, Catholicism.

When faced with being burned alive or taking a dive from a skyscraper, what would YOU decide?

Any 'god' that would damn a person's decision under these (or any) circumstances, is a god I do not choose to have anything to do with, nor any of his priests/clergy members who would not do everything in their power to comfort the survivor's family members in their hour of grief and not spout some crap about their soul being sent to hell over suicide.

Leave it to the Catholics to judge and rate one another let alone anybody else caught in a situation like that.
Shocking !

It's all about karma. I wouldn't consider that suicide, it was more of an escape.

I’ve never read any official position on this. Normally, killing anyone (including yourself) is considered a major sin (violation of the Ten Commandments). I’ve read that people in such situations are not thinking clearly and are acting out of desperation. As such, various religious “experts” have speculated that such people would therefore be forgiven.

I think when facing death or death, it's not considered suicide. I think it's often considered more of a leaping into God's embrace, like a scared child leaping into the arms of a parent kind of thing no matter what choice you make. That's how I've had it described to me. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[quote]On the day following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, it was General Audience Day in the Vatican. Pope John Paul II set aside his weekly reflection saying he could not begin this audience without expressing his profound sorrow at the attacks which brought death and destruction to America.

“Even if the forces of darkness appear to prevail, those who believe in God know that evil and death do not have the final say,” he said.[/quote] from Vatican News

Hmm I don't think so, because life or death wasn't a choice in this case

It would be choosing one death over the other. And falling would be more quick and painless than burning to death

But I'm not a Catholic. I don't know

I think under the circumstances (extreme mental duress and fear) God would forgive them;I may Google the pope thing"

Does it really matter??

What matters is that Those who put them in that position to choose between worse and the worst should not be pardoned neither by God, not by his children …