Chicago Archdiocese Dedicates First U.S. Suicide Memorial

The Archdiocese of Chicago dedicated the "At Peace" memorial at Queen of Heaven Catholic Cemetery in Hillside, Ill., saying it is the first by a U.S. archdiocese. It honors Rev. Charles Rubey, 86, who founded LOSS in 1979. Two women told him a priest said their loved ones were in hell; he replied, "They're with God!" He began blessing bridges, railroad tracks and basements where people had died by suicide. Rubey and Bishop Lawrence Sullivan designed the memorial during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sullivan said the church once told people, "Buck up, just white-knuckle through it," but now understands mental health issues are not willpower. "This is not something we are ashamed of," he said. Rubey said the church made "a complete turnaround" and families are "no longer condemned or thought to be in hell." Teaching still regards suicide as a grave sin but recognizes mental illness and allows that people who die by suicide may be saved. Pope Leo XIV called for "a safe space where everyone has a place — a community that accompanies and never excludes." Rabbi Marianne Novak attended the June dedication after her daughter died by suicide at 18 in 2017 and said people could remember loved ones "in a loving way, not to focus on how they died."