[jose2]

I am so sorry for your loss. Unfortunatly this was not just one priest. it seems to be the churchs culture, three, different states, three different situations, three same outcomes. the church was not there for me and my family, this is not the church I was raised in,

[CarGuys]

I am also so sorry for your loss and share your grief and your frustrations.

Their good memories and contributations in life should not be dimished buy this act.

I am not Catholic or as religious as I should be. Yet in my teachings I don't think Jesus ever stepped over or ignored a person in need.

Judgement will come for someone way above us

Herv

[PennBF]

This brings back the memory when the preist who was going to marry us, (my wife was Catholic and I was not). Preist said my brothers could not be in the wedding as they were not Catholic. I told him my father's boss (Bishop in New York City Protestant Church) had just returned from a Conference with the Pope and I could make arrangements for him to call Rome for special dispensation. He called then Cardnial Spellman in NY City and yep, no problem I could have anyone in the wedding. So much for the "rules"..

[lovsthosebigdogs]

Originally Posted by Talk Host

My 90 year old cousin lives in St. Petersburg. She was raised in my hometown of Weirton, WV and attended Catholics Schools there. She is a former Marine and was married to a Marine Colonel. They lived all over the world prior to his retirement. She was widowed about 12 years ago.

During the Korean war, he was seriously wounded. My cousin went to her parish priest and asked that a mass be said for him. The priest declined because her husband was not Catholic. Since that time, she has been an on again, off again Catholic. (mostly off)

She became extremely ill about a month ago and was given only a few weeks to live. Last week ,when it seemed that the end was near, her son called the priest in the St. Petersburg parish where she lived and asked if he would visit her in the hospice and administer the "anointing of the sick" rites. He declined, saying that she was not an active member of his parish and would not do it.

What right does a person have to call himself a man of God who refuses to tend to the sick . If he was walking down the street and saw a person dying on the sidewalk, would he check to see if the person was a member of the parish before he would tend to his spiritual needs. What if a devout practicing Catholic from Chicago was in St. Petersburg and fell ill. Would this priest refuse to visit the sick individual?

In her two greatest times of need, the church turned it's back on her.

My cousin died last night. She was a dear soul with never an unkind word about anybody. Some of her last words to me were, "when you speak to the man upstairs, please mention my name."


JLK

I am so sorry for your loss and that the priest did not handle this the way he needed to to help your dear cousin. From reading the other replies on this thread I see that you are not alone, sad as that is to read. She sounsd like she was an amazing woman and I am sure she enriched many lives with her goodness and strength.

[Mikitv]

Sorry for your loss and that priest didn't make it any easier at a very sad time.

We had same thing about 30 years ago in Lehigh Acres Florida. Priest did come to hospital and give mom her last rites before we got to hospital because she had listed her religion as Catholic and she was. When we asked him to do the memorial service he refused because she wanted to be cremated and it was against church policy at that time per the priest. We did find a very nice Baptist minister who agreed to do memorial service for us even though he had never met mother or us.

[gerryann]

Very sad thread. I never read it before. I attended Catholic schools from kindergarten through high school in Wisconsin. The original poster did indeed have an unfortunate situation and it happens too often. I had a few very similar situations in my life. The important thing now is to be comfortable with your relationship with God.