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• Analysis
Catholic church suicide compassion marked by Chicago memorial At Peace
The Chicago archdiocese has dedicated At Peace, a memorial it calls the first of its kind by any US archdiocese, at the Queen of Heaven Catholic cemetery in Hillside, Illinois, honoring lives lost to suicide, the families left behind, and the decades of work of Rev Charles Rubey - a sign of the Catholic church's turn toward suicide compassion.
By Haut Monde Post
• October 10, 2026
• 3 Min Read
The archdiocese of Chicago has dedicated a memorial to people who died by suicide and to their surviving families, at the same time recognizing the Rev Charles Rubey's decades of work supporting those families. The gesture reflects the Catholic church's shift toward suicide compassion after centuries of excluding such deaths from its rites. The memorial, titled At Peace, stands at the Queen of Heaven Catholic cemetery in Hillside, Illinois, and the archdiocese says it is the first of its kind created by any US archdiocese.
Rubey founded the Loving Outreach to Survivors of Suicide in 1979, a counseling and support program run by Catholic Charities of the archdiocese of Chicago.
A first among US archdioceses
"We did not want this memorial hidden away and we were intentional in every detail," Sullivan said.
The cemetery itself is also home to the world's largest Catholic mausoleum.
From banned burials to embrace
The dedication marks how far the church has moved. Historically, it banned funeral rites and burial on consecrated grounds for those who died by suicide. A 1917 church law kept that denial in place until it was revised in 1983.
- •Catholic teaching still considers killing oneself a sin.
- •It now acknowledges that mental health problems can lead people to suicide and says salvation is possible for those who take their own lives.
- •In recent decades, greater understanding of mental illness has helped shift the cultural view on suicide and influenced Catholic teaching.
Rubey said the church has made a complete turnaround in embracing families who have lost a loved one to suicide, adding that they are no longer condemned or thought to be in hell.
Rome's attention to mental health
The Chicago memorial sits within a wider current of attention from Rome. Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV has dedicated some of his monthly prayer intentions to people suffering from mental health problems and suicidal thoughts. He has called on the church to be "a safe space where everyone has a place – a community that accompanies and never excludes, that listens without judging and draws near without fear".
Ed Shoener, whose daughter Katie died by suicide in 2016, co-founded the Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers. The association works to educate parish communities to break down the stigma around mental illness and to advocate for better mental health care. In January, Shoener met Pope Leo to thank him for his interest in mental health and voiced hope for an apostolic letter or encyclical on the subject.
Pastors and families respond
Rev James Martin, editor at large of the Jesuit magazine America, says the church's approach mirrors that of broader society, which now shows more sympathy for everyone affected by suicide.
"To be able to extend pastoral care to the family members is extremely important, and to not make them feel any sense of shame."
This month, Shoener returned to the Vatican for an event coinciding with Leo's monthly prayer intention and World Mental Health Day on Saturday, where religious leaders and health professionals will examine how parishes respond to mental health issues and how to establish mental health ministries. Shoener said he would love to see mental health ministry become "a common ministry in every parish around the world, just like youth ministry".
