Why Was Terri Denied Holy Communion?

e3mil.com ^ | 11/29/03 | Pete Vere

[nickcarraway]

ping

[Stirner]

When I asked a person I know who workes with disabled people about the communion issue, she said there was a danger of choking. Even if a small crumb were put in a semi-conscious person's mouth (a person who lacked a swallowing reflex), she might breathe that crumb into her lungs. This was during the time that Terri's feedin tube had been removed. Now that the tube has been restored, could a host be introduced into her normal feeding mix (which I assume is liquid)? I thought that the sacrament had to be taken separately from any other food, but could it be mixed in with water (or wine)or does it have to be in solid form?

[giotto]

It doesn't take a genius or a degree in Canon Law to understand why Communion was denied to Terri. Michael Schiavo was afraid that if Terri could swallow even the tiny sliver of Communion host, it would prove that she could survive without the feeding tube. Depriving her of food at that point would be blatant and obvious starvation of a viable human being.

[Mo1]

Thus we should find it troubling that Michael Schiavo and his attorney George Felos — neither of whom are Catholic — were capable of denying Msgr. Malanowski permission to administer the sacraments to a dying woman. And even more troubling was the Diocese of St. Petersburg's apparent refusal to back Monsignor up. Where was Bishop Lynch when the police threatened this eighty-year-old priest with arrest?

Troubling .. yes

Surprised .. no

[giotto]

Even if a small crumb were put in a semi-conscious person's mouth (a person who lacked a swallowing reflex), she might breathe that crumb into her lungs.

Have you ever had a Communion host? They dissolve almost immediately on the tongue. There is no way anyone could choke on a gossamer thin morsel of host the size of a large snowflake.

[Mo1]

When I asked a person I know who workes with disabled people about the communion issue, she said there was a danger of choking. Even if a small crumb were put in a semi-conscious person's mouth (a person who lacked a swallowing reflex), she might breathe that crumb into her lungs. This was during the time that Terri's feedin tube had been removed.

That is very possible .. but they were starving her to death .. so I am to believe they were concerned about her choking to to death??

With that said, I have heard that they could have put the communion into her feeding tube before it was removed.

[Smocker]

Pete Vere said: "By now, most of you are familiar with the Terri Schindler-Schiavo situation down in Florida. Now that her life has been spared through the intervention of the Florida State Legislature and Governor Jeb Bush, many of us can sit back and reflect upon the events as they unfolded.

Serious Questions About Religious Rights

From my own perspective as a canon lawyer and a baptized Catholic, the incident I found most troubling throughout this drama was the denial of Terri's right to the sacraments."

***

Pete is writing as though this whole thing is resolved and we can sit back now and Monday Morning quarterback the issue. What he should realize is that the battle has not stopped, and that every day Michael Schiavo and George Felos and their team are working as hard as they can to kill Terri.

Somehow, this ommission speaks more clearly to me than the discussion on canon law.

These people, Schiavo/Felos/Florida Judges, don't give a hoot about civil law, nor about Canon Law, for that matter, neither do the Florida Bishops.

[maica]

Finally, let us look at the reason why Michael Schiavo and his legal team continue to deny Terri her fundamental right to receive the Holy Eucharist. According to most press reports, they allege that allowing Monsignor Malanowski to administer Viaticum to Terri would "cause her distress." As an aside, I am by no means a medical expert, but it is inconceivable to me how someone who is truly in a permanent vegetative state could experience distress at receiving the Most Holy Eucharist. What adds to my incomprehension is that these same individuals reportedly allege that Terri feels no distress from her starvation and dehydration. But setting aside this medical marvel, it is not inconceivable that someone in a persistent vegetative state could find the Holy Eucharist comforting since Viaticum is primarily food for the soul and not for the body.

Simple logic!

[LadyDoc]

Even if a small crumb were put in a semi-conscious person's mouth (a person who lacked a swallowing reflex), she might breathe that crumb into her lungs.

Yup. but they could have given her the wine.

As I pointed out in other posts, if Terri was unable to swallow at all, she would have died of aspiration pneumonia, since she could not swallow her saliva.

The average length of life in those who are given feeding tubes because they can't swallow at all is six months.

Most feeding tubes are placed because they can't swallow very well, and feeding increases the rate of pneumonia, and feeding tubes makes it easier to care for them by nursing home or family. When I worked with the retarded as a young doctor, feeding tubes were rare, because we had enough staff to feed, but many of the worse cases took an hour to feed: three times a day means three hours of nurses or nurses aid time. That's expensive. Nowadays, most brain damaged retarded are in group homes, and they don't have the staff.so there are a lot more feeding tubes nowadays than there were in the 1960s and 70s (thank God the law prohibits putting retarded in nursing homes, so they probably won't be starved en mass for awhile).

The real question is if Terri had the capacity to understand what was communion.

I don't believe she is in a coma, and I am leery about the term "vegetative state" since it is highly overdiagnosed.

I've seen profoundly retarded children take communion with reverence, and Pope Pius X allows children to take communion...but if they do not understand at all, usually it is not given...

So either it was a publicity stunt to prove she was alert, or else the priest saw by her expressions that she recognized there was something holy about communion. Since she also recognized her parents, I suspect this is the case...

[Dante3]

BUMP

[HiTech RedNeck]

I am, personally, not a Roman Catholic, but it seems to me here is a possible chance for the RCC to do a (please excuse the expression) "Hail Mary" pass to Terri's benefit, and they are blowing it. The RCC could say that, given some kind of demonstration that Terri had pledged her affiliation to the RCC, she is due as her religious rights not only a Communion but also ordinary food! Where's Rome on this? Where's the US council of bishops, or whatever it's called? Their shouts should be registering on the Richter scale, IMHO.

[John Doe]

A woman being put to imminent death by dehydration/starvation vs a possible choking death...hmmm. And the problem is what?

[dasboot]

Nick,

I think you may remember my opinions on this case; allow me to offer one more:

As I recall, it was a police officer who intervened when the padre tried to give Terri the host. I think it was a simple matter of the officer enforcing the letter of the judge's order, and nothing more than that (nothing by mouth). And I think that's about the extent of the whole thing. Nothing by mouth means nothing by mouth, and the badge was performing his duty to the best of his ability--and probably rankled by nagging conscience all the while. This officer had no reasonable lattitude: the eyes of the world, that could punish any exercise of his discretion, were upon him. In light of that circumstance, it's reasonable, at least to me, that the cop would stick to the letter of the order.

I'm reminded of the centurion at the crucifixion who, although he acknowledged Christ's divinity, was yet constrained by his duty (What would have happened if the leader of a hundred soldiers had commanded Jesus be taken down and rescued?); and to what purpose that story has been used by the design of God's intentions.

As I recall, the centurion looked a lot like Ernest Borgnine.

[John Doe]

Dead on.....

[solitas]

Now that the tube has been restored, could a host be introduced into her normal feeding mix (which I assume is liquid)? I thought that the sacrament had to be taken separately from any other food, but could it be mixed in with water (or wine)or does it have to be in solid form?

No offense - but can you think that God is so petty as to care (even in a case like Terri's) whether or not it's mixed with food?
I can't find His ruling on it anywhere (book, chapter, verse); compared to all the human-created nonsense that abounds in print.

[Dutch Boy]

This sounds like a case for a blatant violation of the free exercise of religion dictated by the government. Her parents should get a pit bull of a lawyer and go after the judge that signed the order.

[Calpernia]

Has the Bishop yet responded to any of this?

[Calpernia]

bump!

[mickie]

ping......