wrong.
New York Post --
VATICAN RIPS TUBE REMOVAL AS 'DEATH PENALTY'
March 23, 2005 -- VATICAN CITY — The Vatican pressed its campaign to keep Terri Schiavo alive yesterday, saying that removing the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube amounted to capital punishment for someone who has committed no crime. In a front-page editorial, the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, criticized federal Judge James Whittemore's refusal to order the reinsertion of Schiavo's feeding tube and disparaged a "society incapable of appreciating and defending the gift of life."
It said Whittemore had condemned Schiavo to an "atrocious death: death from hunger and thirst."
"After all, Terri's destiny appears not unlike that of many men and women who in the United States get capital punishment for their crimes," the paper said.
"But Terri has committed no crimes, if not that of being 'useless' to the eyes of a society incapable of appreciating and defending the gift of life. Of any life." The Holy See has maintained that there is virtually no justification for the death penalty.
The decision by Whittemore came after feverish action by President Bush and Congress to pass legislation allowing the brain-damaged woman's contentious case to be reviewed by federal courts.
"She has no possibility of being 'restored' to a 'normal' life. Therefore Terri Schiavo must die," the L'Osservatore editorial said in its interpretation of the judge's ruling. "This is . . . the absurd and terrifying reason" for Whittemore's decision.
The feeding tube was disconnected Friday on orders of a state judge, prompting an extraordinary weekend effort by congressional Republicans to push through unprecedented emergency legislation Monday aimed at keeping her alive.
A top Vatican official, Monsignor Elio Sgreccia, also criticized the ruling, saying it legitimized a "cruel" death by hunger and thirst for Schiavo.
But experts say if she dies from the removal of her feeding tube, her passing should be peaceful.
AP --------------------------------------------------- Vatican denounces Schiavo ordeal
From correspondents in Vatican City
March 24, 2005
COMPARING the case to Jesus Christ's Way of the Cross, the Vatican today denounced a US court decision to let a severely brain-damaged woman die as a new painful step in her ordeal.
The statement, in the Vatican's Osservatore Romano daily, came after a federal appeals court turned down early today an emergency request by the parents of Terri Schiavo to have her feeding tube reinserted. "A new painful 'station' of the personal calvary of Terri Schiavo was written today" by the court, the daily wrote today.
On Easter Friday, Christians take part in the Way of the Cross which commemorates the steps or "stations" of the suffering and death of Jesus.
"Unfortunately, until now Terri Schiavo has met several torturers on her painful journey: from those who first decided that she should die to the judges who signed her sentence," the Osservatore stated. The newspaper had compared Mrs Schiavo's "agony" to the "agony of humanity" in an article Monday.
Doctors estimate Mrs Schiavo's time of survival since her feeding tube was disconnected on Friday at two weeks. She has been in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years since heart failure caused severe brain damage.
Michael Schiavo, her husband, has said she should be allowed to die and that she had expressed such a wish in the past. Her parents have for seven years fought efforts to remove her from life support, insisting she can get better.
Doctors have repeatedly said in court that Mrs Schiavo has virtually no chance of recovery.
The Vatican daily said the court decision went against the views of a large section of US public opinion as well as that of US President George W. Bush, who expressed his disappointment at the court's ruling. "In the meantime, unaware of the fuss surrounding her case, Terri is dying, in silence," the newspaper wrote.
Guess again. This does not carry the weight of Doctrine. Even Papal encyclicals do not represent doctrine; they only provide a means of guidance for the Faithful.
You'll notice I said that the Catholic Council of Bishops opinion does not seem to conform to the Vatican's opinion.
But I wasn't so rude as to post the entire official position of the Bishops; it's so long you'd all be screaming at me.
But their Catholic Bishop's position is posted again below. And it's interesting that there is obviously even deep divisions within the Catholic Church about this matter.
For instance, one of the reasons it is permissable to starve a person is if the financial burden becomes to great.
http://www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/euthanas/nutqa.htm