Vatican cardinal meets with family of Terri Schiavo

Gainesville - AP ^ | May 17, 2005 | AIDAN LEWIS

[NYer]

ROME The family of Terri Schiavo met with a top cardinal Tuesday to thank him for the Vatican's support as they sought to keep the brain-damaged woman alive.

Schiavo's father, Bob Schindler, said that support from Cardinal Renato Martino and other Vatican officials had helped the family "spiritually" in their unsuccessful battle against a court order to have Schiavo's feeding tube removed.

"Just knowing that he supported us gave us strength," said Schiavo's mother, Mary Schindler, following a 15-minute private audience with Martino.

Schiavo died on March 31, almost two weeks after the tube was removed.

The struggle between Schiavo's parents and her husband over whether she would have wanted to be kept alive with the feeding tube riveted Americans and sparked an international debate about end-of-life issues.

Martino heads the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and had urged in February that the feeding tube not be removed.

The Vatican condemned her death as "arbitrarily hastened," and called the removal of her feeding tube a violation of the principles of Christianity and civilization. Martino said Tuesday that Schiavo's death was "an insult to human dignity."

Also at the meeting with Martino were Schiavo's brother Bobby Schindler and sister Suzanne Vitadamo.

The family said they would attend Pope Benedict XVI's general audience Wednesday, and Martino said the pope would be informed of their presence.

In a statement following the meeting, Martino cited an address from Benedict earlier this month in which the pope said that "freedom to kill is not a true freedom but a tyranny that reduces the human being into slavery."

"We can expect from Benedict a very great and convinced defense of life," Martino said.

[NYer]

Italian Cardinal Renato Martino, left, holds a frame with pictures of Terry Schiavo presented by her family members: Bob Schindler, center, an unidentified friar, Mary Schindler and, at right, their son Bob Jr. Schindler, during their meeting at the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, in Rome, Tuesday, May 17, 2005. The family of Terri Schiavo met with a top cardinal Tuesday to thank him for the Vatican's support as they sought to keep the brain-damaged woman alive. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca)

[NYer]

Catholic Ping - Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list

[avg_freeper]

The Schindler family will be one of the speakers at our Eucharistic conference in Georgia next month.

[yellowdoghunter]

Thanks for posting this. I am sure it gave the family comfort knowing the Pope was praying.

"We can expect from Benedict a very great and convinced defense of life," Martino said.

He is going to be a great Pope.

[CitizenM]

The sadness of this story will never fade. We can only hope that because of Terri, this type of tragedy will never be repeated. God bless this family and help heal their suffering. Terri will watch over them now, I believe.

[mtbopfuyn]

Schiavo's Terri's death was "an insult to human dignity."erri's death was "an insult to human dignity."

Prayers for the Schindlers and other families going through this horror.

[brushcop]

Thank you my Catholic friends for showing the way for life, dignity and Terri's memory. I heard a good segment on talk radio with folks that are continuing Terri's fight for the good of everyone. This isn't over yet, nor should it be. Thank you again!

[Theodore R.]

this type of tragedy will never be repeated

No, it's being repeated right now in FL too! There is a "wife" trying to get the mother's guardianship revoked so that she can starve and dehydrated the husband and son.

[texasbluebell]

"We can only hope that because of Terri, this type of tragedy will never be repeated."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Schiavo Foundation Urges Wife of Disabled Jacksonville Man to Err on the Side of Life

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/1403250/posts

[NYer]

No, it's being repeated right now in FL too! There is a "wife" trying to get the mother's guardianship revoked so that she can starve and dehydrated the husband and son.

Very much a copycat crime.

The Jacksonville, Fla. Sheriff’s Department has an open investigation in the case of the Jacksonville man who suffered serious head injuries and brain damage last September in the kitchen of his home in suspicious circumstances, according to the Justice Coalition of Jacksonville.

   The case has striking similarities to the Terri Schindler-Schiavo case of Pinellas County.

   The wife of Scott Thomas, 34, says he fell backwards over the family dog, striking his head but doctors for the incapacitated man say that his injuries aren’t consistent with such a fall.

    His wife, Eliza, 29, a Polish immigrant who Scott married about three years ago to keep her from being deported, has petitioned the court to move her husband to a hospice and remove his feeding tube to cause his death although his doctors and family and he is making steady progress towards recovery.

   The Justice Coalition, a crime victims advocacy group, entered the case Monday.

   Ann Dugger, executive director of the Justice Coalition, said that an investigator for the sheriff’s department has confirmed that the matter is under investigation.

   Scott’s mother, Pamela Patton, also of Jacksonville, has temporary guardianship but his wife has asked the court to appoint her.

   The family had filed a complaint in October with Florida’s Department of Children and Families, statutorily charged with investigating complaints of alleged abuse, neglect and exploitation  but family members said DCF told them the agency could not become involved because Scott was not disabled at the time of the alleged incident.  However, he had just returned home from a hospital stay, one of several in the last couple of years for unexplained stomach problems.

   Two years after the couple were married, Scott starting getting mysteriously ill with stomach pain and about every three months has been hospitalized.  His mother says that although doctors have done numerous tests, they could not diagnose the cause of her son’s sickness.

    DCF reportedly told the family that they would keep their file open.

[wildandcrazyrussian]

As I read the situation, the significance of Terri's death was NOT that she was in any sense the first case of someone starved to death by a faithless spouse under cover of law, but that -- to the contrary -- there have already been tens if not hundreds of thousands of such cases; but this is the first time we have been able to find out that such things are happening in our civilization. This is solely due to the dogged tenacity of the Schindler family, and had they been less able to keep their struggle going (and receive valuable assistance in publicity from the new media) she would have been just another unheard case.

The fact that we were able to intercede with calls and such in the case of Mae MaGouirk, and now the new case with the wife trying to starve her husband, is solely due to our being newly informed that this is happening. I am sure that millions of people are shocked to hear about all this for the first time, and to hear that it has already been going on for many years.

In an analogous manner, I was shocked in 1973 to hear about something called "abortion" and it still inconceivable to me that such things can occur in a civilized country. Yet by 1973 there were already 500,000 annually (and "legal"-izing it merely tripled the number).

So I feel that we have been deceived by the fact that all this this becomes entrenched and institutionalized, so our efforts come not at the beginning of the incidence, when we could hope to influence attitudes and behaviors, but when they have already been (without our knowledge) accepted as normal by an entrenched power structure and we face fierce resistance to what they then see as an unnecessary "change" (restoring what we thought was the status quo of the presumption for life).

[MizSterious]

In case you haven't already been pinged--

[freepertoo]

I'm praying for this poor man. Oh, Lord, this type of thing MUST stop.

[Mr. Silverback]

See post 10 for an interesting parallel case.

ProLife Ping!

If anyone wants on or off my ProLife Ping List, please notify me here or by freepmail.

[redgolum]

I knew that Terri's murder would spark copycat crimes, but this is faster and more blatent then even I expected.

[Theodore R.]

Maybe this FL "wife" has found her role model in popular Michael R. Schiavo.

[TheSpottedOwl]

Thanks for pinging me. I was very impressed with the statements issued from the Vatican regarding Terri. Imo, there has been too much reluctance on their part to publicly address certain issues, in the past.

[TheSpottedOwl]

Very good analogy, WCR. If the Schindlers hadn't fought like tigers, we may have never heard of Terri, Mae, Clara, or Scott...or the fact that there have been success stories with brain injured people.

Thanks for posting your thoughts.

[NYer]

I knew that Terri's murder would spark copycat crimes, but this is faster and more blatent then even I expected.

Article doesn't mention whether or not she has hired George Felos as her attorney. The following description is still applicable only need to switch genders to make it fit.

Man "finds" Wife unconscious.

Man keeps Wife unconscious.

Man gets malpractice money for Wife.

Man wants Wife's money.

Man wants Wife dead so Man can have money.

Man gets Lawyer.

Lawyer is/was Hospice Board Member.

Lawyer promises Man that Wife will die at the Hospice...

[Future Useless Eater]

thanks for the ping Miz,
thanks for the photo NYer,

texasbluebell, your link in post#9 was from the FIRST time this story was discussed over the weekend. It got pretty heated and for that reason moved to the smokey back room. THAT thread is STILL OPEN and it is the PERFECT SPOT if anyone wants to engage the 'other side' in HEATED discussions on this issue.


BUT THERE IS also a newer thread started yesterday
that everyone is trying to keep the temperature down.
ExPatInFrance is ALSO calling for it to be an ACTION THREAD,
not a debate thread --->so read his posts 110 and 126


Case Similar to Terri Schiavo's Has Wife Deciding Her Husband's Fate
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1404053/posts


There are MORE photos near the bottom of that thread as well.