[Church Militant] -Days before a Seattle man planned to marry his same-sex partner and kill himself, a Jesuit priest led the entire parish in a final blessing of him.
After a diagnosis of cancer in 2018 and one round of chemotherapy, Robert Fuller picked May 10, 2019, as the day he was going to die and began planning a party where he would marry his same-sex partner then kill himself.
An Associated Press report chronicling his last days quoted Fuller as saying, “Why should I suffer? I’m totally at peace with this.”
Fuller also said he wanted to be an example of how assisted suicide works to others around the country.
On May 5, the Sunday before Fuller died, he attended Mass and received Holy Communion at St. Therese Catholic Church in Seattle. Jesuit priest Fr. Quentin Dupont led the parish, including the children who had just received their first Holy Communion, to give Fuller a blessing.
Father Dupont was ordained in 2014 by the Society of Jesus in California.
According to the report, “St. Therese Parish was known for accommodating a range of beliefs” and “Fuller’s decision was widely known and accepted among the parishioners.”
Saint Therese’s choir director, Kent Stevenson, explained, “It was hard to even cry because he was so forthcoming and so sober about it.”
Stevenson said Fuller was a lector during Mass and sometimes delivered insightful or funny remarks off the cuff after the Scripture readings.
Fuller was surrounded by friends and family when he injected a cocktail of lethal medications and Kahlua, his favorite drink, into his own abdomen later that day.
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[Editor’s Note: This article Anita Carey and first published at Church Militant]
