A Catholic priest in Brooklyn, New York, was found dead earlier this month in a church rectory, along with a 16-page suicide note.
The New York Post reports that Father Patrick Burns, 57, was found dead on December 14 in the rectory of Holy Name of Jesus Roman Catholic Church in Windsor Terrace. His body was reportedly found with slash marks on his wrists in the living room of the rectory.
Sources told the newspaper that police found an empty bottle of the antipsychotic drug Risperidone along with the suicide note.
Patrick Burns, Brooklyn priest, kills himself in Holy Name of Jesus Roman Catholic Church https://t.co/bHiwMcRF5a pic.twitter.com/jTqu9wO7Yn
— New York Post (@nypost) December 24, 2018
The content of the suicide note are not known, but the report states that Father Burns had previously taken a medical leave.
According to an obituary in Tablet magazine, the priest was bilingual in Spanish and had been serving numerous Spanish-speaking neighborhoods in New York since he was ordained in 1992.
“I’m shocked and amazed,” the church’s music director, Ivonne Rojas, told the New York Post. “I would never think he did this.”
The report does not include any details about an autopsy.
