Death in Church Couldn’t Stop Mass

• James
  January 30th, 2008 at 6:31 am

  Couldn’t God just have beamed him outside?

• Sid Morrison
  January 30th, 2008 at 8:07 am

  Well the Mass is a prayer itself, so it makes sense that it would continue with the participants keeping the deceased’s soul in their minds as they are waiting for the local magistrate to arrive (per teh law apparently).

  I’ve been in a Mass when an older person collapsed in unconsciousness. An EMT person happened to be there, so he contacted the local ambulance squad and administered to the victim himself, whilst everyone else continued praying and the Mass went on. The ambulance crew came in and got the guy out and to the hospital unimpeded within minutes, but the Mass continued on throughout. At some point the priest interjected some words asking everyone to pray for so & so’s recovery as well. What else are you going to do… send everyone home to watch football? It’s prayer … you continue praying and remember the sick/deceased person in those prayers.

• Tim
  January 30th, 2008 at 8:43 am

  Mass or not I think common decency would permit that the ambulance crew could remove the corpse from the church and deal with it appropriately.

  Man some religions are bizaar…

• Fazia
  January 30th, 2008 at 9:00 am

  Tim, it’s not the religion preventing the ambulance crew from removing the corpse. It’s Italian law. They can’t move it until the magistrate gives the okay.

  As for continuing Mass, it’s not like it was a concert. They were praying. It seems insensitive, like they’re ignoring the deceased, but they’re praying. There’s nothing better they could’ve done.

• Sid Morrison
  January 30th, 2008 at 9:56 am

  @Tim-
  Did you read the article or even the short blurb?
  1. The ambulance crew was called.
  2. They declared the guy dead. (apparently they had authority to do so — in the US, you need a doctor I think)
  3. Apparently the local law is that once the guy is declared dead, the ambulance crew cannot legally move them w/o the local magistrate arriving. He wasn’t there, so they couldn’t move him.
  4. Life went on for the living as they prayed for the departed and they waited for the magistrate to OK moving the body.
  5. The dead guy’s son thought his father (a devoted Catholic & faithful Mass attender) would have wanted it that way and had no problems with the way things went down. So, what’s the big deal?

• NiteWhite
  January 30th, 2008 at 10:38 am

  They should’ve sent everyone home to give the old woman her privacy. If it had been you (FSM forbid!), and you happened to be full of urine and feces, which properly emptied onto the floor posthumously, would you like everyone around you to witness/smell that? Where is the dignity in that?

  Just because it’s religion doesn’t mean everyone should understand it’s reasoning behind the disrespectful act. It’s just like when religious zealots scream to the high heavens when science supports their mythology, but if when it doesn’t they cry and whine that religion must be respected! Oh, the hypocrisy.

• Fazia
  January 30th, 2008 at 11:06 am

  NiteWhite, not all dead bodies expel urine or feces. You can’t just assume that it occurred in this instance and that they continued to worship around that. Doesn’t it make more sense to believe that it didn’t? Or are you so determined to point a finger merely because religion is involved?

• NiteWhite
  January 30th, 2008 at 12:15 pm

  Fazia, I worship the Flying Spaghetti Monster, so I am not against religion.

  Regardless if they are praying, playing bingo, or roasting smores, if someone dies in the immediate vicinity, they should leave out of respect for the dead. There doesn’t have to be excrement for you to understand my point - though it certainly highlights a possible scenario.

• Sid Morrison
  January 30th, 2008 at 12:42 pm

  @NiteWhite-

  FYI. The “old woman” was a man. If the name Pio (not “Pia”) wasn’t a tip, the article (which you read, right) called him “Mr.” a whole bunch of times.

• Fazia
  January 30th, 2008 at 12:44 pm

  The Flying Spaghetti Monster???

• biltmore
  January 30th, 2008 at 12:52 pm

  Ahhh, the joys of religion in a modern society.

• skreidle
  January 30th, 2008 at 7:38 pm

  Fazia: Yes, the Flying Spaghetti Monster. http://www.venganza.org/

• Christophe
  January 30th, 2008 at 10:48 pm

  Wow. Dying during the Mass. Straight line to heaven I guess.

• priscilla
  January 31st, 2008 at 12:46 am

  Im not too religious but I see how this is OK. They called the ambulance and prayed for the man who had died. To me that seems very respectful. They might not be physically moving the man but they are… I guess mentally… helping him in the best and only way they could have. As Fazia said…they’re not at a rock concert. Theyre at church where the body probably would have ended up at a later time for the same kind of prayer.

• ted
  January 31st, 2008 at 6:58 am

  Kind of a prolonged last rites.
  Of course, some folks take the opportunity to grind their axes here.

  I wonder how many people were really paying attention to the mass by that point.

• Jerry
  February 12th, 2008 at 2:19 pm

  If the other people were fine with it, leave them be.

  Hey NiteWhite, get off your high horse, arrogant bastard.

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