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125 Dead Family Walking Copyrighted Material

Baton Rouge (AP). Nuns take charge of Sonnier funeral. Murderer buried with bishops.

Early morning readers of the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate on Friday, April 6^th, read shocking news that the head of the Catholic Diocese, Bishop Stanley Ott, was to conduct the requiem services for a dead convict; and that the nuns from the Order of the Sisters of Saint Joseph, who opposed the death penalty and tried to save Sonnier from the electric chair, now claimed he deserved a dignified burial. “Patrick ( Elmo) died for his brother,” Sister Helen of the Sisters of St. Joseph was quoted as saying to reporters. Sister Prejean said her friends in the Order, took on the responsibility of burying Sonnier because his mother is infirm and couldn’t be at the funeral. Sonnier was born into a Catholic family and attended church according to a friend, rarely as a youngster, but never as an adult. However, in the eyes of the Catholic Church—in which he had not set foot for many years—he deserved compassion and mercy.

Although it was known that he was a thief, a wife beater, a kidnapper, a rapist, a murderer, had refused communion moments before his death, and was unremorseful, the church argued that he was nevertheless entitled to a dignified funeral. In fact, he was granted one reserved for prominent Catholics—all because a nun and a bishop were against capital punishment. Not only was Sonnier going to have a mass conducted by a bishop, but the funeral home was pressured into donating their services—including a free casket, and yet-to-come, a free burial in Roselawn Cemetery.

Local Catholics were in a state of shock that Friday morning as news of the events taking place in their community began to spread. How could this be happening? Their bishop conducting a funeral for a convicted murderer? Who was Elmo Sonnier? Was he some special Catholic who gave his life to his church? Was there something special he did that the public was not told about?

Despite criticism, Bishop Ott personally conducted the funeral mass held at Rabenhorst Funeral Home, which was attended only by a handful of people—half of which, strangely enough, were fifteen Sisters of the Order of Saint Joseph, who filled up the first rows of the funeral home, rosaries in hand, kneeling in prayer for Sonnier as if he was a dear friend; when in fact, besides Prejean, not one of them had ever met him before. Something more than the eye beheld was taking place that day. The picture didn’t fit. Why would so many nuns and a bishop mourn a convicted criminal who committed such a ghastly and horrible crime? What were these messengers of the Catholic Church really up to? How inconsiderate it looked, on a national and international level, for such prominent members of a religion to show such public deference for someone they knew nothing about? The nation stood in wonder, of who was calling the shots that day? Who was running the show?

After being eulogized by Ott, Sonnier’s funeral procession traveled a short distance to Roselawn Cemetery where Bishop Ott, again eulogized over Sonnier, as did Prejean, who by some reports, seemed to be enjoying the media attention. Newspaper readers did not have to wait for the next morning’s paper since the carefully publicized funeral and burial was televised on local broadcasts throughout the state on the evening news.

Family and friends of the Bourques phoned each other as they tuned-in that Friday evening to TV newscasts, watching in disbelief. The Bourques sat before their TVs in horror as the Catholic bishop conducted mass for the man who had killed their daughter. The words that poured from Ott’s lips about ‘what a good Christian Sonnier was’ and that ‘any sinner who does repentance gets a Christian burial’ struck deep inside Godfrey and Goldie’s Catholic hearts as sure as if they were hit by real bullets coming out of the television screen. Television cameras showed what seemed like a room full of nuns clutching rosary beads, kneeling throughout the funeral home chapel praying for Sonnier. The news reporter said Sonnier was also given a free funeral, a free casket and a free burial plot. What was going on? Why was Sonnier being treated like a hero? Why was God letting this happen to them? They lost their daughter; they had to go through six and a half years of appeals; and now this! After all, they were the victims, not the murderers.