I don’t usually ask questions like this…

and I left the fold a long time ago. But since 9/11 just passed, a friend who’s devout was wondering if the "jumpers" (those who leapt from the Towers to avoid being burnt alive) were pardoned by the Pope because of the circumstances, or were they viewed as actual suicides ? I have no idea, but I agreed to ask.

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DrWatson · 70-79, M

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.