O RITO E O TRAUMA: O SUICÍDIO PARA TRADIÇÃO CATÓLICA E SEUS DESLOCAMENTOS CONTEMPORÂNEOS – DA RECUSA SACRAMENTAL À REINTERPRETAÇÃO PASTORAL

Abstract

Centered on the work E Foram Deixados para Trás, by Father Licio de Araujo Vale, this article investigates the current position of the Catholic Church on suicide, examining its pastoral, doctrinal, and social implications. Through a critical reading of the book, the aim is to understand how the contemporary discourse either engages with or enters into tension with the theological tradition that, since the Patristic and Scholastic periods, has treated suicide as a grave sin. To this end, the study revisits the formulations of Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas, as well as the decrees of the Council of Trent and the teachings found in the Roman Catechism, contrasting them with the reformulations introduced by the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The analysis adopts an interdisciplinary approach, grounded in the articulation between theology, history, and sociology, with an emphasis on Foucault's perspective on power dispositifs and Durkheim's classical contributions regarding suicide as a social fact. The critical reflection also engages with Marxist thought, in order to understand the transformations in religious discourse on voluntary death. The study concludes that, although moral condemnation remains at the core of Catholic doctrine, there is an increasing pastoral sensitivity, marked by conceptual shifts that reveal the Church’s attempt to address the complexity of human suffering without relinquishing its moral authority.