Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Seasons of Grace

Home
Catholic

Death

Select a Category #Synod14 Abortion Abstinence Abuse Addiction Adoption Advent Adventure Advertising Aging Agnosticism All Saints Day All Souls Day Amish Anathema Angels Anglican Animals Annulment Annunciation Apocalypse Apologetics Apostles Apostleship of the Sea Apparitions Archangels Archbishop Cordileone Archbishop Dolan Archbishop Vigneron Archeology Architecture Art Art Buchwald Ash Wednesday Assisted Suicide Astronauts Atheism Athletes Babies Baptism Beatification Beauty Bible Biochemistry Bioethics Birds Bishop Lori Bishops Blasphemy Books Canon Law Canonization Capital Punishment Cardinal Burke Cardinal Dolan Cardinal George Caritas Catechesis Catechism of the Catholic Church Catholic Catholic Education Catholic Higher Education Catholic Social Teaching Celibacy Cemeteries Character Charity Chastity Cheapskate Christian Unity Christmas Churches Civil Rights Cloning Comedy Communion of Saints Community Kitchens Confession Confirmation Conscience Consequences Consistory Constitution Contraception Conversion Cooking Councils of the Church Creativity Criminal Justice Cristero War Crucifixion Crystal Cathedral Culture Death Death and Dying Death Penalty Department of Health and Human Services Diaconate Dictatorship of Relativism Dignity Disability Discrimination Dissidence Divorce Doctors of the Church Early Church Fathers Easter Economics Ecumenism Education Encyclicals Environmentalism Episcopal Church Eucharist Euthanasia Evangelism Evangelists Evangelization Evolution Excuses Facebook Faith Families Family Fashion Fasting Fatherhood Federal Government Feminism Fiction Film First Amendment First Communion For Greater Glory Forgiveness Free Speech Friends Friendship Gender Discrimination Germany Gnosticism Good Friday Government Grace Greed Gregorian Calendar Happiness Health Heaven Heresy History Holidays Holiness Hollywood Holy Land Holy Saturday Holy Spirit Holy Week Holy Year Home Sweet Home Homosexuality Hope Humanism Humility Humor Imagination Immaculate Conception Immigration Impulsivity In Vitro Fertilization Incarnation Indulgences Infallibility Internet Islam Italy Jerusalem Jesus Judaism Justice Kathleen Sebelius Labor Movement LCWR Lent Life Literature Liturgy Lourdes Love Magi Marketing Marriage Martyrdom Martyrs Mary Mass Media Medical Ethics Mexico Michigan Miracles Missionaries Modernism Modesty Monks Monothelitism Motherhood Movies Mushrooms Music Muslim Mystery Mysticism Mythology Nativity Natural Law Nature New Evangelization New Media New Year New Year's Resolutions Nostalgia Obscenity Occult Old Testament Origen Orthodox Orvieto Pallium Papacy Parenting Patience Patriarch Bartholomew Patriotism Peace Peace and Justice Penitence Pentecost People Persecution Philosophy Poetry Political activism Political Correctness Politics Polls Pop Culture Pope Benedict XVI Pope Francis Pope John Paul II Pope John XXIII Pope Paul VI Pope St. Pius X Pope Urban VII Population Prayer Preaching Prejudice Pride Priesthood Pro-Life Protestantism Psychology Purgatory Queenship of Mary Racism Rape Real Presence Reconciliation Reformation Relics Religious Religious Liberty Reliquary Renewal Reproductive Technology Resurrection Rights Romance Rome Royalty Sacraments Sacred Heart Saints Satanism Science Science Fiction Scripture Seal of Confession Secularism Seniors September 11 Seventy Times Seven Sexuality Sharks Sin Smoking Social Communications Social Justice Social Networking Social Sciences Space Exploration Spirituality Sports St. Luke St. Patrick's Day St. Paul St. Peter St. Teresa of Avila Stations of the Cross Steve Jobs Superstition Supreme Court Symbolism Synod Technology Teen Rebellion Television Terrorism Thankfulness Thanksgiving Theology Think This, Not That Tobit Toilets Toys Tradition Traditions Transplants Travel Trinity Twitter U.S. Air Force Uncategorized United Nations USCCB Valentine Vatican Vatican Archives Vatican Blogfest Virtue Vocations Where We Pray White Heart Women World Day of Social Communications World Meeting of Families World News World Youth Day Worship Writing Year of Consecrated Life Year of Faith Year of Mercy Youth

Select a Month December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010

September 2015

September 06, 2015

Seminarian, 30, Called Home to God; Dies in His Sleep

A 30-year-old seminarian at St. Paul Seminary-School of Divinity died unexpectedly in his sleep August...

June 2015

June 24, 2015

Drug-Crazed Intruder Kills Samuel Traut, Popular Bible Teacher at NDSU Newman Center

"A good young man unknowingly opened his back door to a monster.” At a news...

May 2015

May 12, 2015

HEARTSONGS: The Story of Matti Stepanek Will Knock Your Socks Off

Requiem in Sea Oh, to call the conch my home . . . Stormy-smoothed tunnels...

April 2015

April 28, 2015

Olfactory Comfort: French Perfume Smells Just Like Your Departed Spouse

For a lonely widow, a photograph can trigger a memory of happier days--but so can...

March 2015

March 12, 2015

Don Piper Was Dead–and Then He Wasn’t. Now a New Movie Tells His Incredible and Moving Story.

Don Piper was dead--and then he wasn't. Pastor Don Piper died on January 25, 1989,...

February 2015

February 26, 2015

Willy Herteller, Homeless Man, Laid to Rest in Vatican Gardens

Willy Herteller is home at last. Willy, a homeless man who had migrated from Belgium...

February 23, 2015

Everybody Dies. Lent Reminds Us of That.

It seems the news lately has been full of death: We've lost Hollywood idols like...

November 2014

November 08, 2014

39 Years Later, Remembering the Edmund Fitzgerald

Does anyone know where the love of God goes When the waves turn the minutes...

October 2014

October 31, 2014

Should You Take Your Child to the Cemetery?

When a loved one dies, should you take your small child to the funeral? I...

October 29, 2014

When We All Fall Down: A Meditation on the Meaning of Death

What words can you offer when a family has lost someone they love, when death...

October 04, 2014

R.I.P. Father Groeschel, Good and Faithful Servant (UPDATED)

Father Benedict Groeschel, CFR has gone home to God. It's not a surprise: We'd heard...

September 2014

September 17, 2014

On Facing Death, and Just Watching Through the Window

I've been thinking about Death. It's not that I'm morose or depressed or anxious to...

August 2014

August 30, 2014

145 Unclaimed Bodies Laid to Rest in Archdiocese of Detroit

The seventh corporal work of mercy is to bury the dead. Usually, we fulfill that...

July 2014

July 22, 2014

Police Seek Clues in Tony Palmer Motorcycle Death

As news becomes available, we learn that it was a head-on collision in Chelwood, U.K....

July 21, 2014

BREAKING: Bishop Tony Palmer, Pope Francis’ Friend, Dies in Motorcycle Crash – UPDATED

R.I.P. Bishop Tony Palmer Died July 20, 2014 = Tony Palmer, the charismatic young preacher...

July 17, 2014

R.I.P. Stratford Caldecott, “Marvel” of Catholicism

I just heard the sad news: Catholic writer Stratford Caldecott has died today of prostate...

June 2014

June 09, 2014

Elmore Leonard Is Dead; Soon We Will Be, Too

A few weeks ago, I and a crowd of fans, shoppers and curious onlookers spent...

June 03, 2014

Melting Corpses?! What Does the Church Teach About Burial and Respect for the Dead?

If you die on Malta, if a proposed alternate corpse disposal system is approved, your soft tissues could...

May 2014

May 14, 2014

Father Robert Cormier, a New Jersey priest and author, has died in a tragic 1,000-foot...

February 2014

February 01, 2014

Hog Heaven? Ohio Man Is Buried Astride His Harley

You can't take it with you--but darned! You can try! Billy Standley of Mechanicsburg, Ohio,...

January 2014

January 28, 2014

Seven Nuns Among Victims in Mexican Bus Crash

Seven Catholic nuns died late Saturday in Puebla, in east central Mexico, when the bus...

January 01, 2014

New “Countdown” Wrist Watch Predicts Exactly When You Will Die

“What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If...

November 2013

November 09, 2013

TIME Magazine Expert: “You Should Be ‘A Little Bit Worried’ About That Falling Satellite”

Here we go again. In September 2011, NASA’s Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), which was...

April 2013

April 15, 2013

Bar Codes in the Darnedest Places!

When I was a child, we played with chalk. We signed our names, we sketched...

April 09, 2013

THE DEADLY “TE DEUM”: Jean Baptiste Lully’s Performance Gone Awry

Jean Baptiste Lully is the only person ever known to have suffered Death By Conducting....

March 2013

March 30, 2013

With Weeping and Lamentations

He is in the tomb. Holy Saturday is such a quiet day—a day of reflection...

November 2012

November 10, 2012

WHERE THE LOVE OF GOD GOES: The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Does anyone know where the love of God goes When the waves turn the minutes...

April 2012

April 22, 2012

One Last Tribute to a Precious Toddler: A Disney Funeral

Bailey Massey was born with biliary artresia, a debilitating liver disease caused by nonfunctioning bile...

April 06, 2012

AN OBITUARY FOR JESUS

December 2011

December 21, 2011

A Sad Addendum to That "Smallest Baby" Story

Sometimes the news is so painful, you just don’t want to know. A few days...