Family Suing Over Hell Prediction at Funeral

[Jeanette X]

Family Suing Over Hell Prediction at Funeral
Thu July 17, 2003 08:38 AM ET
By Zelie Pollon
SANTA FE, N.M (Reuters) - A New Mexico family is suing their local Catholic church over a funeral Mass in which they claim a priest said their relative was only a middling Catholic and going straight to hell.

Lawyers for the family of Ben Martinez said on Tuesday they had filed a lawsuit in June against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe and one of its priests.

Court papers filed last month say that Rev. Scott Mansfield said at Martinez's funeral last year that the deceased was "living in sin," "lukewarm in his faith" and that "the Lord vomited people like Ben out of his mouth to hell."

Martinez, 80, died June 17, 2002. Roughly 200 people attended the funeral at St. Patrick's Parish in Chama, New Mexico, a small town north of Santa Fe. Family members say he was a practicing Catholic all his life, but was too ill to attend church in the last year of his life.

Nine members of the Martinez family are seeking punitive and compensatory damages for severe emotional and physical suffering. Lawyers did not say how much the family was seeking in damages.

One of the plaintiffs said the townspeople "are staring at her, thinking her father is in hell," their lawyers said.

The complaint also said that as Mansfield walked to the grave, he laced his comments about Martinez -- a former town councilman -- with profanities.

"These people are profoundly hurt," said attorney Kathleen Kentish-Lucero, representing the Martinez family. "If you are Catholic and a representative of your church says your father is going to hell, that's perhaps the most devastating thing someone can say to you."

But church officials deny the family's claims.

"We deny the allegations and Father Mansfield denies the plaintiff's allegations," said Celine Baca Radigan, director of communications for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.

Radigan said that Mansfield has been moved to a parish outside of Albuquerque on a routine transfer.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=3108008

[Cosmo Electrolux]

I'd be pissed too. You pay all of that money for a decent funeral just to find out that your dearly departed is going to hell....

[AChimp]

Catholics don't go to hell, though. You just end up sitting around in Purgatory for an extended period of time.

[KILLADEUCE]

Meine Gotte- That would be a slap to the face. I mean think about it, what a poor time to hear things like that... At someone you love's funeral... Regardless of if it is true, the Priest should have had enough common sense to not bring it up at the poor guys funeral service... At least if the allegations are true.

[Cosmo Electrolux]

yeah, he'll smoke turds in purgatory first, then he'll head off to heaven....unless god decides to vomit his ass straight to hell....

[VinceZeb]

Truth hurts.

[Yaweh]

Originally Posted by VinceZeb

Belief in God takes more intelligent, tact, and willpower than not beliving in God.

Originally Posted by VinceZeb

tact

Originally Posted by VinceZeb

tact

Dont get your hopes up, Vince. Truth hurts.

[sspadowsky]

I love hilarious articles about stupid things done by archaic religious institutions that have somehow managed to outlive their relevance. It's just icing on the cake when idiots like Vinnie step up to back them.

[pjalne]

I know If anybody's been fucked over by fundamentalists, been thrown in jail by absurd logic or bombed to shit in a questionable war, you can be sure he'll defend what's happened with all his being. As long as it's a combination of fundamentalism and conservatism, he's all for it no matter fucking what.

We need to find an article that says the pope encourages rapage and eatage of Iraqi children and watch him go.

[The One and Only...]

I suppose I'll be vomited to hell. Then again, so will the majority of the world.

[VinceZeb]

If Christians are correct, then 2/3 of the world are already going to Hell, because they do not accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

[ranxer]

hahaha, i was going to say 'truth hurts' too!

assuming the 'living in sin' was accurate, its nice to see people calling it as they see it. i'd be pissed if the guy was an athiest and had some priest calling the bell ringing for hells gates.

let me take this moment to splain a little about my faith
when i was a kid i prayed for jesus to come into my life for years with various churches.. i went to a catholic school for a bit, bible study etc.(i like what jesus stood for and respect him as a historical figure) but when i had no answers for over a couple years, i thought i'd go out on a limb and try my own tactics.. i figured ok, so god won't answer me.. ill try the devil hehe.. burned a page of the bible a day while praying to the devil and he didnt answer me either so i figured neither existed.. sure yall can point at some way i missed but you don't know how many things i tried over a couple year period.. including retreats with religious groups .. i really Wanted to believe. now i call the bible the 'book of doom' and have no fear of gods wrath. i say BRING IT ON! i challenge god to any test any time. to be fair i challeng the devil just the same.. bring it on you fuggin wimp ill kick your ass any day!

[O71394658]

"The Devil's greatest trick was convincing the world he didn't exist."

[ranxer]

thas a nice quote that comes up nearly once a month for me but its another example of how rooted in simpletonisms the faith in dieties is. the concept that you must believe before you see a sign is similar..
yea, maybe after i get a labotomy ill start believing.

the same for bad luck or ghosts.. i try to get bad luck to prove to myself that there is such a thing.. ghosts, demons, curses etc.. i challenge anyone that has some etheral power to smack me with some supernatural calamity.. none have succeeded. ive been known to dispell cursed items for others though i cant verify that cause i dint believe in the curse to begin with.

for you faith based folks, im not interested in argueing you are wrong as much as i'm interested in respect for non-believers(and all diversity).
on the flipside i really do want to know if i'm wrong about this stuff

[El Blanco]

So, a universe governed by laws so tightly that almost everything can be accuratly predicted seems like an accident. You don't think someone planned that?

[ranxer]

i think the view that it was planned is homocentric egoism looking for answers that are satisfiying not necessarily the truth.

what created the big bang(or whichever science origin theory is relavant) is the same question as what created god or where did god come from. virtually unanswerable. it doesnt make me question my purpose. just because there are laws of matter and dimension doesnt mean there is a divine planner, to me that's just ludicris.

the big bang theory is one that is being questioned and is based on evidence not faith.. science has the benefit of questioning itself, religion for the most part is not introspective or evolving as new information comes up.

[El Blanco]

What do you mean? You mean there aren't conferences and questions and tons of new developements?

Boy, you don't touch real newspapers at all do you?

[Cosmo Electrolux]

Originally Posted by O71394658

"The Devil's greatest trick was convincing the world he didn't exist."

oh, grow up. ...

[O71394658]

Since the Devil doesn't exist, why should you care.

[The_voice_of_reason]

Since when do Preists get to decide who goes to heaven and who doesn't, I thought that was Jesus' gig.



How would he be able to see into this mans mind and find out if he had accepted Jesus?