Posted on 10/21/2003 3:59:10 AM PDT by NYer
Good news, hopeful news, and call-to-action...
| 10/21/2003 2:57:09 AM | ||
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Sonya and I returned to the vigil for Terri today. The mood is very hopeful. As it is early in the morning, however, I apologize in advance for any typos as well as the disjointed posting of my thoughts... 1) From what the nurses participating in vigil told me, barring a miracle (and there have been many in this case) Terri's vital organs are now in the process of shutting down due to poisoning from the toxins in her body. In the normal course of events, irreversable damage will have been done to her kidneys for example. 2) Prayers are still very much needed. I would suggest in this order of importance: a) For Terri and her family, b) for Monsignor who is trying to provide for her spiritual needs, c) for Jeb Bush and the Florida senate, d) for Chris Ferrara, Pat Anderson and the rest of Terri's legal team, e) for the conversion of Mike Schiavo, attorney George Felos and Judge Greer -- the unholy trinity of the culture of death. 3) As Fr. Rob Johansen reported, he's received his bishop's permission to accept Monsignor's invitation to come down and assist Terri's friends and family. Monsignor is eighty years old, but like any good priest and former military officer, he keeps soldiering on at the vigil. Nevertheless, he is really looking forward to having another priest there full-time, particularly a young priest like Fr. Rob. The two of them have been in touch, and everything is now arranged for Fr. Rob's stay. Again, thank-you to everyone at St. Blog for coming through. 4) Terri's father was in tears when he found out that not only has St. Blog, the Alhambra and Freepers found him a replacement Rosary with the papal blessing, but there are enough on overnight for each member of his family. Thanks to everyone who responded to this call with such generosity. 5) I was there when we got news that Jim King, the head of the Florida State Senate, was going to allow the bill to go to the floor for a vote. My friend George, a pro-life civil attorney who has been at the vigil practically everyday, said that this was extremely hopeful. Again, thanks to everyone who responded to the blog call to phone and email King. Keep it up until the bill passes. 6) Start emailing John Aschcroft as well as the Florida State Attorney. Whether or not Terri survives, and we all hope and pray that she will, we need an investigation of the possible abuse she may have suffered. Right now, Michael Schiavo has reportedly ordered that upon her death she be cremated without an autopsy. We cannot allow this to happen. If someone could please post the email addresses and the phone numbers of these two Attorney General's offices in the comments section and on your blog site, it would be greatly appreciated. 7) Speaking of action, there was enough of a popular outcry today to overwhelm and shut down both the phone lines and the email server of the Florida state legislature. This happened because everyone took the time to phone and email. Please keep doing so. 8) Looking back, although we're far from being out in the clear right now, I get the sense what we are seeing is a genuine grass roots movement among those who support the culture of life. The mainstream secular media dropped the ball on this long ago by shilling for the culture of death. So what has taken over is the blog sites, email discussion groups, message boards and cell phones. In ingnoring this story except to occasionally stump for the culture of death, the mainstream media has basically forfeited a large measure of its credibility and influence to the new media. 8) Through the intervention of numerous saints and some pro-life political activists, I ended up on the cell phone at some point major Repulican policy wonk in Washington if I am not mistaken. I directed him to the statement below from certain members of the Catholic media, and strongly suggested he print off a copy and discuss the issue with whoever is now in charge of the Republican's outreach to Catholic voters Basically, if Republicans wish to continue making inroads among the Catholic vote, he needs to take a good look at it. On this note, please continue to pray for Terry and her family, as wel as the legal team and Governor Bush (along with the state senate.). |
90% of Canadians live within 200 miles of the American border. Pete Vere grew up as in Northern Ontario as part of the other 10%. He ate a lot of French-Canadian pea soup. He is a revert from the SSPX schism, the youngest canon lawyer in North America, and also Envoy Encore's token (or is that Tolkien?) Canadian. He obtained his ecclesiastical licentiate and civil Master's Degree in canon law from Saint Paul University in Ottawa, Canada. As a Catholic writer, canonist and apologist, Pete's work has appeared in numerous Catholic publications, including Surprised by Truth 3. Pete is also the original canon law blogger, having founded the Canon Law Blog which was later rolled into Catholic Light. In addition to blogging for Envoy Encore, he remains an active contributor to Catholic Light and is also developing a blog for the an international group of canon lawyers who maintain a Canon Law Discussion Group. Currently, Pete is married to his college sweetheart Sonya, and they have one child (but are hoping God will send them more!) When not engaging in canon law or apologetics, Pete and Sonya volunteer with the International Order of Alhambra -- a Catholic fraternal organization dedicated to assisting the mentally and developmentally challenged. Sonya loves it because it allows her to spend some quality time with Pete away from the computer, and Pete loves it because he gets to wear a nifty white fez and still be a Catholic in good standing!
Excellent job, freepers!!! Please ping your lists!
Was online last night to listen live to the FL session - the testimony on the floor was mostly supportive and very emotional. A few people said they thought Judge Greer is wrong, couldn't imagine how he made the decisions he made with what was before him, so many details of the case that are missed in the media came out, like how Schiavo testified that he wanted to take care of Terri and then as soon as he got the money, he put a DNR on her chart and stopped all therapy etc.
One female legislator talked about her grandmother, how her family was told she would never recover from her so-called vegetative state, and at one point they pulled the feeding tube for TEN DAYS, then couldn't take it anymore and had it put back in. She went on to live for 3 more years and the day before she died, she became much more alert and had a conversation with her granddaughter that made it perfectly clear that she had been in there the whole time, knew her granddaughter had been faithful in her visits, they even discussed childhood stories.
It was amazing compelling testimony to the fact, and she basically said this, that the law was meant for terminal patients, not mentally disabled ones, and no one is protecting Terri.
The transcript is not yet available on the FL Senate site but will make a good read when it comes up. Also, at the moment there is no link available to listen live; that will probably also change as session time nears, if anyone wants to listen to the Senate address this. Not sure what time they start, I'm going to try to connect starting at 9.
Thank you for sharing that story! This is precisely the type of encouragement we all need to hear!!
I am terribly dissapointed with FOX !! I am so tired of KOBE BRYANT and SCOTT PETERSON....grrrr.Terri's case is one that should have been all over. IT will effect ALL of us eventually.
Note the misinformation: "Coma" ... "Dying" And this is from the LEAST biased source of most people's news! If it weren't for FR, we could all be this confused!
Well she WASN't DYING....until they started to STARVE HER!!!! and COMA?? ABSOLUTELY NOT. FOX better get it together or conservatives will begin to search around yet again for unbiased MEDIA coverage.
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