BURIAL OF SUICIDES

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 147, 23 June 1928, Page 20

BURIAL OF SUICIDES

' . POEM OP SEIIVIQE. • - A, rnling has just boon given by the IMahop of St. Eldinundsbury and Ips- , wich with' regard to the form of tho / burial service to be used in the ease .of suicides, states the Ipswich eorrcs? pendent of the."Daily Telegraph." Dr. "Whittuighain dirqets clergymen to use the USBa) form/and procedure' whero a jury finds that a' person has taken hi? ; life/while mentally deranged. Writing on the' subjeef; in the Dio'cesan'Magazine for Suffolk, the bishop says: "Oft one or two recent occasions i aom.e trouble has occurred through, the ', i(etion'of a clergyman ,who has been called upon to perform the burial service over: the body of one who had takei. his own life, and who has not '. regarded himself as at liberty to pass qyer tie direction of the Prayer Book, whjfeh says that the ordinary office is ■'Jflpt to be used for any^who 'havelaid ■Violent hands upon themselves.' This ' direction appears to be quite explicit, 1 jjnd I have no doubt that 'any elergyijian using some other'form has done so ; .:'i!n the belief that he was'not at liberty i-tQ pse;thc customary offjee syid'pro'coi 4urfe.'.'. : '-■.]. .; ■ . • • ' '<I wish to state quite definitely that the Eubrie does not apply in the cqBO qf one who has taken his life while deranged, whether permanently qr tempo- : i-arily. • Befusal to' use the customary service implies a censure upon, and, coiir sequently, the.recognition of responsibility on the part of the person who has i<Ued.r. But a person who is not sarip ;jj| not responsible, and, under those cii> ; euigstances, both ho and the relatives, ■who have the special shock of the occurrence to bear, 'deserve a special meav i»ure of pity and sympathy, and everything that we can do to soften by.a, peculiar emphasis of our, faith in Gpd'fl lave the unavoidable pain of the event, . MThe question whether "or no the pe,rpon who I^ied was pane or not ia noi fof the clergyman to determine. The Imr is quite clear on the point. eons of insane mind not-being deemed responsible for their . acts are not tobe understood thereby (that is, by the ■words of the Eubric) to have laid violent hands upon themselves.' Of the «ltate of mind of those who .died by iheir own hands the Coroner h jury are ■ tjie proper judges, and, as tho law in re-:-<qrence to other matters considers those only as having laid violent hands on theJnselves ipoii whom .a verdict of f elo 4g so has been' returned, it cannot be supposed that: the .minister would be permitted to exercise his own judgment in such a matter. 'On acquittal of the crime of self-murder by the Corp* »erV jury a clergyman may and ought to i»dmit that body to Christian buriall (Cripps). In this opinion I entirely SOUCur. <<I, therefore, direct any clergyman yr\\Q may' be called upon to officiate in ■ush a case to use the usual form and prpce.dure, and, if. he is in any ..doubt, *nd time permits, to refer the matter tO me."' .-• '• ' ■■■• ' . " '.', ''.. I