A priest who was photographed blessing a man who planned to commit suicide said Friday that he was unaware of the man’s intentions, and that if he had known what the man was planning, he would have acted differently.
Fr. Quentin Dupont, SJ, periodically celebrates weekend Masses at St. Therese Parish in Seattle.
A photograph of the priest was part of an Aug. 26 Associated Press story profiling Robert Fuller, a St. Therese parishioner who committed medically assisted suicide May 10.
On May 5, Dupont, along with the parish community, blessed Fuller at a Mass he had announced as his last.
Members of the St Therese parish community were aware of Fuller’s plans at the May 5. He had by then announced that his funeral would be held at the parish May 17 and arranged for a parish choir to perform at the “end-of-life” party he threw in the hours before his suicide.
Dupont, however, told America that he was not told of those plans when he arrived at the parish May 5.
“I arrived at church and I saw a parishioner there and I asked how he was doing. He said, ‘Well, this is Bob Fuller’s last Mass,’ and I was puzzled and so I asked him what he meant. He said, ‘Well, Bob is going to die.’ I didn’t know much about Mr. Fuller. I knew he was very ill and I thought that meant that his treatment had run out, that he was getting off treatment and that Mr. Fuller knew he had days to live. And I continued my way to the sacristy and I met another couple of parishioners who said likewise, that this was Bob’s last Mass. Through those conversations, I became aware that this man that I knew was very ill would like a blessing.”
“So we talked about doing a blessing at the end of Mass. We had Mass and at the end of Mass we blessed him.”
“I thought the pastoral situation I was walking into was with this very ill man who knows he’s about to die. I wanted to make sure he felt cared for by the church.”
Dupont said that he knew a television camera was at the May 5 Mass “because Bob was there. I didn’t probe what story they were writing. I thought they were making a story about this man who was facing great health difficulties and who had a life of faith, which I assumed was an interesting story to tell in a day and age which is heavily secularized.”
“There was a photographer there. I do not at all remember being introduced to this photographer as a member of the press. I was never asked for an official release about images that would be taken of me or photos that would be taken of me. I thought that this photographer was there because this was [Mr. Fuller’s] last Mass and he wanted a memento, a memory, of this Mass, this community, this time, when later he would be gravely ill in bed and he wanted to feel the strength and the love of the community with him. And I thought this was a professional photographer that he had hired to take some pictures to have them as memories and souvenirs for himself,” he said.
The priest said that a parishioner told him about Fuller’s suicide plans shortly after the Mass, at the parish social hour.
“I had absolutely no idea what his intentions were before that. The moment I learned about his intentions, I was completely stunned. I was shocked; and I was just really really puzzled. I remain very puzzled,” the priest told America.
Full story at Catholic News Agency.
If a parishoner told Fr. Dupont about Mr Fuller’s plans, did Fr Dupont or the pastor visit Mr Fuller to discuss the matter?
It is very easy to get entrapped in situations like this. I know I have had to find graceful ways out of similar situations. That is one reason I do not like to attend weddings any more, unless I know the people well and understand fully the situation. One can go to such things and find one selves in the middle of a very bad situation. If it is at a Mass or wedding, quite often the best thing to do is to quietly get up and walk out, even if it means just into another room, so one does not seem to give support to evil. Often others are with us or brought, so we cannot leave completely. I feel for the priest if he is telling the truth.
i hava bridge i’d like ta sell ya
But the archdiocese knew and approved the advance funeral plan. That’s the bigger scandal. The archdiocese is attempting to deflect attention onto this priest and his alleged lack of knowledge, whereas the archdiocese is fully complicit.
How do you know the archdiocese “knew” of and “approved” the funeral plan? Obviously, parishioners did. Funeral plans are ordinarily handled on the parish level, not through the chancery. I’ve seen nothing to indicate that the archdiocese knew of and approved of this.
http://www.seattlearchdiocese.org/Assets/ARCH/SanctityOfLifeStatement-rev01.pdf
Mr. Fuller eventually approached the pastor to ask to plan his own funeral. The pastor discussed the gift of life and tried to convince him to change his mind. He made it clear that neither he nor the parish could support his plan to take his own life. Once it was clear that Mr. Fuller was not going to change his mind, the pastor reached out to his leadership to discuss the situation.
Archbishop Sartain agreed that it is the church’s responsibility to pastorally care for those who mourn. With this in mind, he gave permission for the funeral with certain conditions to ensure there was no endorsement or other perceived support for the way in which Mr. Fuller ended his life. The purpose of the funeral was to pray for his soul and bring comfort and consolation to those who mourned.
Father DuPont celebrates Mass at St. Therese on an irregular basis. He should be given the benefit of the doubt. It appears Mr. Fuller was disingenuous in making his request for a blessing. Father DuPont’s account makes sense.
“So we talked about doing a blessing at the end of Mass. We had Mass and at the end of Mass we blessed him.”
“I thought the pastoral situation I was walking into was with this very ill man who knows he’s about to die. I wanted to make sure he felt cared for by the church.”
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That (Catholic ?) church gave him a Blessing at the end of Mass, their Parish Choir performance at his party, and a Funeral.
But was he given Confession and the Sacrament of the Sick ( Extreme Unction) ?
So let’s go along with the story line. If true, how will the priest handle it from here ? This is an example of why the happy clappy serman style does not work. Again if true, then this priest has to correct his parishioners and that lying to him that lead him to this blessing is sinful. I can guarantee this will not happen and he will be told to handle this the wrong way.
Well, if Mr Fuller told Fr Dupont that ‘this is my last mass’, why didn’t Fr D at least offer to hear his last confession? As a priest, should not that have been an automatic response?
Many of us will not know which Mass is our Last Mass.