Bishop: Angelo Reyes may get Catholic burial despite suicide

Even if he is believed to have committed suicide, former Defense Secretary and former Armed Forces chief of staff Angelo Reyes may get a Catholic burial if a bishop will allow it. Retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz, a Canon Law expert said "Now, the Church is more understanding because in this state of mind that is so confused and depressed then he is not himself ..." "People who are no longer in the right senses because of very serious difficulties and big depression, etc. definitely will be very hard to say they were themselves when they took their life," Cruz said in an article posted on the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) news site. With the advancement in psychiatric sciences, he said there is a growing presumption that when people commit suicide “they are not themselves." Cruz said that in the past, people who committed suicides were not given Catholic burials and no Masses were celebrated for them. Need for bishop's approval Activist priest Jose Dizon, however, clarified that only a bishop can decide whether or not Reyes can be given a Catholic burial. In an article posted on the Union of Catholic Asian News website,Dizon cited the case of a politician who was denied Catholic rites by a bishop for being a Mason. He said Lucena (Quezon) Bishop Emilio Marquez refused to give the late governor Rafael Nantes a Catholic burial for being a “born-again Christian" and a Mason who did not repent. “Canon 1184 states, that Church funeral rites are to be denied to ‘notorious apostates, heretics and schismatics’ unless they showed some signs of repentance before death," the UCAN quoted Marquez as saying. Reyes' death On Tuesday, Reyes reportedly shot himself in front of his parents' tomb in a memorial park in Marikina City. He was rushed to a Quezon City hospital but doctors failed to revive him. Two weeks ago, former military financial officer George Rabusa accused Reyes of receiving a "pabaon" (send-off money) of P50 million from military funds when he retired as military chief. On Tuesday, the day he died, Reyes was supposed to testify before the House committee on justice on its inquiry on the plea bargain deal between the government and former military comptroller Carlos Garcia, who was accused of plunder. The probe was also supposed to discuss supposed pay-offs received by members of the military upon retirement. Reyes was the chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) from 1999 to 2001 during the terms of former Presidents Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Reyes was also Defense Secretary from 2001 to 2003 and Energy Secretary from 2007 to 2010. – VVP, GMA News