Posted on 10/19/2003 8:02:16 AM PDT by NYer
Dear Governor Bush:
As members of the Catholic media, we beg you, in the name of our Lord Jesus, to intervene in the case of Terry Schiavo, and, by extension, in the lives of the millions of persons with special needs in Florida and throughout our country whose lives will be greatly endangered if Ms. Schiavo is left to die, or, more accurately, murdered through the present withdrawal of food and water.
The judge in this case is acting on a remarkable doctrine: That food and water are medicines which may be granted or withheld based on a judicial order. What legal or moral authority gives anyone the right to withhold food and water from an innocent person? Starvation is a most painful and difficult death. If one were to propose it as a method of execution for death row prisoners, it would be instantly opposed by society under the Constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. If starvation is cruel and unusual punishment, it should not have the imprimatur of the State of Florida for any innocent citizen.
We admire your seeking the assistance of the St. Thomas More Society concerning what is legally just. And we are strengthened in our hearts by their response that, at the very least, you have the authority and the duty to protect her life and to conduct a proper and thorough investigation. We appreciate the difficulty of this matter and that the right course of action before God may not be the popular one in today's culture.
The moral and just path, however, is clear to us who believe that human life is God's to give and His alone to take. History has shown the truth of the statement, The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. We would go a step further in saying that those who have the power to do good, and yet do nothing, participate in the triumph of evil, whether or not their withholding of the good seeks or intends such evil.
It may be that our Lord has put you into office, like Queen Esther of old, for such a time as this . The God who saved Esther, and through her, the people of God, will not abandon you, dear Governor. He is faithful. May our Lord Jesus Christ be your comfort and guide in this urgent hour, and may you be His instrument to save the life of one of His little ones , and through her, the dignity of every soul made in His image.
With gratitude and prayer,
Rosalind Moss,
Catholic Author and Speaker
Father Richard John Neuhaus
Editor in Chief, FIRST THINGS
The Institute on Religion and Public Life
Pete Vere, Editor
The Alhambran Magazine
Mark Shea
Catholic Author and Speaker
Philip F. Lawler
Editor, Catholic World Report and Catholic World News
Carl Olson
Editor, Envoy Magazine
John Pacheco
Catholic Author and Speaker
Domenico Bettinelli, Jr
Managing Editor, Catholic World Report magazine
Amy Welborn
Columnist, Our Sunday Visitor
Martin K. Barrack
Catholic Author and Speaker
David Pearson
Features Editor, National Catholic Register
Mike Mohr
Chairman, St. Bernadette Soubirous Chapter of Catholics United for Faith
Dave Armstrong
Catholic Author and Speaker
Gerald Korson
Editor, Our Sunday Visitor
Steve Ray
Catholic Author and Television Host
Rod Bennett
Editor, WONDER Magazine
Matt C. Abbott
Columnist, the Wanderer
Tim Drake
Staff Writer, National Catholic Register
Dr. Paul Thigpen
Executive Director, The Stella Maris Center for Faith and Culture
Mary Kochan,
Contributing Editor, Catholic Exchange
Sandra Miesel
Catholic Journalist
David Moss
President, Association of Hebrew Catholics
Maureen and Robert Wittmann
Catholic authors and speakers
Steve Kellmeyer
Bridegroom Press
Mike Aquilina
Vice President, St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology
Mark Brumley
Catholic Author
Greg Popcak
Catholic Author and Radio Host
Patty Bonds
Catholic Author and Speaker
Jeff Cavins
Catholic Radio and Television Host
Fr. Joseph F. Wilson
Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn
STARVATION DAY 5
Terri Schiavo denied Last Rites
Catholic monsignor forbidden to put crumb of holy wafer in dying woman's mouth
By Sarah Foster
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
Saying she was only following court and doctor's orders, an attorney for Michael Schiavo yesterday would not allow a revered Roman Catholic priest to administer Holy Communion to brain-disabled Terri Schindler-Schiavo, who is being slowly starved to death following the judge-ordered removal of her life-sustaining feeding tube on Wednesday.
Attorney Deborah Bushnell told Monsignor Thaddeus Malanowski, who has been Terri's spiritual provider for three years, that ''because of court order and doctor's orders, you can't put anything in her mouth,'' not even a morsel of moistened communion wafer.
Malanowski recounted the bizarre incident for WorldNetDaily. ''I felt that time was of the essence at this point and made a decision that because she is not going to live much longer, I might not have another opportunity to give her Holy Communion,'' he said.
As he had done almost every Saturday for over three years, the priest accompanied Terri's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, to the Hospice of the Florida Sun Coast in Pinellas Park, Fla, where she has been a patient since April 2000. Because so little time is left for the family to be with Terri, her brother Bobby and sister, Suzanne, were there as well.
Plus there were two police officers in the room and a woman who was said to be Schiavo's ''representative.''
Malanowski spoke with Bushnell outside the room, explaining that he wanted to administer the Sacrament of Annointing of the Sick or the Viaticum, the last communion for a Catholic before death. Bushnell contacted Schiavo by phone to make certain he would allow it, and he gave his permission.
Wanting to make it a prayer service, the priest invited the family into the room to share the sacrament with Terri, but Bushnell demanded to know what the priest was going to so.
Malanowski explained he was going to give her: ''a small, tiny particle of the consecrated Host. And I'll moisten my index finger [in water] to make sure the Host will stick to it and that it will stick to her tongue.''
Bushnell said he couldn't do that, but suggested he ''take the Host, touch her lips with it, and you consume it.''
Malanowski protested, ''I'm not here for that. I am here to bring her communion, not me. I went to communion this morning. This is communion for her.''
Contacted by telephone, the priest of the local parish told Bushnell there was an ''alternative'' called ''spiritual communion'' for people who can't receive communion – ''She receives the Lord in her heart.''
''I told attorney Bushnell, I've been doing that for over three years,'' Malanowski exclaimed. ''Every Saturday I give her spiritual communion, and I want her to receive communion in the mouth. She hasn't received communion for 13 or 14 years. She's dying. She's on her deathbed, and with dying people – whether it is a male or female Catholic – I'm obligated to take care of their religious and spiritual needs when they're dying. They get absolution, Holy Communion, and Annointing of the Sick.''
Malanowski argued the matter with the parish priest, but realized he was ''following the party line about spiritual communion.''
''I told him I'd been doing that for two-and-a-half years – and he said, 'Well, the doctors say you cannot put anything in her mouth.'''
Malanowski said he would do it, ''because she has the constitutional right to follow her religious beliefs, she has the right to receive communion and I have the obligation as a priest to give her communion. This will be perhaps the last time in her life on earth that she receives communion.''
But the priest didn't agree. ''I sensed that, because he was saying, 'Otherwise you can't do it. If the court-order says so and the doctors say so, you can't do it.'''
Unwilling to argue points of theology and constitutional issues on the phone, Malanowski tried Bushnell again, but she was adamant. ''She wouldn't let me do it.''
There were two police officers, and he asked them, ''What if I go in there now and give her communion?'' And they said, ''We will deny you access to her. You will not be able to put it in her mouth.''
At that point Bobby and Suzanne, said, ''Father, let's go.''
And they did. While Bushnell was talking with the priest, they had had a prayer service and the ''spiritual communion'' – but many Catholics do not regard that as the same as communion with a consecrated host.
Outside the hospice a scheduled press conference was about to begin, and Malanowski found himself in front of the TV cameras.
''I told them [the media] the whole story, that she was denied her religious privileges and I was denied the right to take care of her religious needs,'' he said. ''I told them, that the attorney had some suggestion about me touching Terri's lips with the wafer, and then I was supposed to consume it. What does she know about Catholic ritual or rites?''
As WorldNetDaily reported, the Schindlers had been fighting their son-in-law for 10 years over the lack of care and therapy Schiavo as her guardian provided for their daughter, who suffered massive brain damage when she collapsed at her home 13 years ago under mysterious circumstances at the age of 26.
The ongoing dispute escalated five years ago when Schiavo petitioned the court for permission to end his wife's life by removing her feeding tube, insisting she is in a ''persistent vegetative state'' and had told him years before she would not want to be maintained ''by tubes'' and ''artificial means'' Although Terri breathes on her own and maintains her own blood pressure, she requires a simple tube into her abdomen to her stomach for nourishment and hydration.
The Schindlers fought tenaciously to keep their daughter and the case alive in the courts, but they have been basically blocked at every turn in particular by probate judge George Greer, of the Pinellas County Circuit Court, who has had charge of the case almost from the beginning. When the seven-member Florida Supreme Court in August turned down a petition to review the case, the way was clear for Schiavo to starve his wife to death.
On Sept. 17, Greer scheduled Oct. 15 as the day Terri's feeding tube would be removed. At the same time, in separate rulings, he denied any rehabilitation for the disabled woman or a chance to be spoon-fed.
Information on Terri's fight for life is posted on the family's website.
Previous stories:
Abuse report filed for Terri Schiavo
Desperate parents plead to Jeb Bush
Lawyers: Bush can step in for Terri
Starvation begins for Terri Schiavo
Husband protests video showing alert Terri
Joni Eareckson Tada joins vigil for Terri Schiavo
Hearing today on woman scheduled to starve
Prayer vigil for Terri Schiavo
Bush steps in for Schindler-Schiavo
Florida AG intervenes in Schiavo lawsuit
Order signed for starvation of disabled woman
Federal judge considers Schiavo case
Federal Court grants emergency hearing in Schiavo case
Attorney: Jeb Bush letter only a 'good first step'
Gov. Bush's plea for Schindler-Schiavo rejected
Jeb Bush intervenes for Schindler-Schiavo
Legal setbacks clear way for Schiavo starvation
Schindler-Schiavo on 'death row'
Husband bars priest from brain-damaged wife
Brain-damaged woman hospitalized
Fight for life bombshell: Terri trying to talk
Petition drive launched for Terri Schiavo
Commentary
'Murder is legal if we say so'
Sarah Foster is a staff reporter for WorldNetDaily.
Sunday Oct. 19, 2003; 1:55 a.m. EDT
Terri To be Cremated on Husband's Orders
Terri Schiavo will be cremated immediately after her death on orders from her husband Michael, her brother and sister revealed late Saturday, precluding any possibility that an autopsy that could determine whether her brain damage was caused by a heart attack or physical abuse.
Terri's siblings Suzanne Carr and Robert Schindler, Jr., told Fox News Channel's "The Big Story with Rita Cosby" that they'd like the authorities to examine the circumstances of the events that caused of their sister's brain damage, based on medical reports that show she sustained several broken bones and a neck injury consistent with strangulation.
Terri's brother said, however, that her husband Michael has "instructed the judge to cremate her body upon her death, which adds even more suspicion to what really happened to Terri."
He added, "We're trying to stop the cremation from happening if Terri does die, so hopefully, we get to the process of investigating what may have happened to Terri that evening."
This is such a tragedy. My prayers have been, and will be for Terri and her family. It's just too heartbreaking for all involved. This should never have happened.
Not in a free America --- but...
Dispose of the handicapped, the elderly, the infirm, those considered by THE STATE to be a burden to others!
Do ANY "Republicans" remember the phrase, "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness?"
Click on the PDF document directly above the SIGN THE PETITION (first of SEVEN), from Thomas Moore Law Center.
PLease help, Luis - any way you can - get the Cuban/American community involved, PLEASE!
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