The indifference of the larger community to Terri’s situation struck me, as well. It was as if we were in a little bubble at the hospice, enveloped in that spiritual battle. It seems one must be in the situation to understand. It was sad and perplexing.
Were you there too? You’re the first Freeper I have met who was there!
Sad and perplexing definitely describes it. I think a lot of that had to do with the hostile attitude of the Bishop of St Petersburg, Bp Lynch. He basically forbade his clergy to give any assistance to Terri or her family. If I had been a priest in that diocese, I simply would have said “the heck with it” and gone in, and I’m sure any priest who did that would have been supported by the Vatican. But the clergy had been suppressed and the laypeople of that diocese and in fact in all of Florida had never been called out and it was clear that in the opinion of the Florida bishops, whatever the state did was fine.
The only thing I can think of as an excuse is that many of the events in the few last days of Terri’s life occurred while JPII was dying, and probably there was some distraction because of that.
However, since that time almost all of the Florida bishops have been replaced (except, ironically, Lynch, although he’s become a lot more orthodox) and this would never happen again. But there’s a long way to go because the laity is so badly formed. My bishop had an overnight vigil to pray about the elections (he’s a well known opponent of Obama and statism) - while some of the leading lights of the parish were driving around with Obama stickers on their cars.
We’ve got a lot of work to do. I don’t know whether you’re Catholic or Evangelical (the only two groups who seem to have showed up), but one of the big problems is that the majority of both groups have somehow fallen into believing that the law of the state basically defines the moral law. It’s only a minority of Catholics or Evangelicals who really understand the issues.