Posted on 05/18/2005 6:01:54 AM PDT by NYer
Terri Schiavo's parents on Wednesday thanked Pope Benedict for Vatican backing in their failed campaign to keep their brain-damaged daughter alive and gave him a framed picture of her.
"I can't even tell you how I felt," Terri's mother, Mary, told Reuters in an interview with other family members in St. Peter's Square just minutes after meeting the Pope.
"When I gave it to him he said: 'I know, I know about Terri' to me. I couldn't imagine the Holy Father saying to me 'I know, I know about Terri'. It was the most I could have ever, ever hoped for," she said.
Bob and Mary Schindler, their son Bobby and their daughter Suzanne, were in the front row at Benedict's general audience.
"When he said 'Terri' he held his hand to his heart like he was very sad," her father added.
Schiavo died on March 31 in Florida after a U.S. state court ordered the feeding tube, which sustained her for 15 years, removed at the request of her husband who said it was what she would have wanted.
Pope John Paul II, who died two days after Schiavo, had declared some life-extending treatments a moral duty for Roman Catholics.
Schiavo's case was followed around the world and sparked outrage at the Vatican, which compared the court to an executioner who "arbitrarily brought forward" the date of her death.
"As Roman Catholics, to see the Pope is the ultimate. We are trying to carry Terri's legacy on," her father said.
Terri's brother, Bobby Schindler, said the family was moved close to tears when they saw sick people being wheeled before the Pope to be blessed by him at the end of the audience.
"We could have done that. Terri is very similar to those people ... it was just sad that she couldn't be here with us to share it," he said.
Throughout the Terri Schiavo case, the Catholic Church defended the family's efforts to defend life, which the Church teaches starts at the moment of conception and ends at the moment of natural death.
"I think we are seeing a real attack on the culture of life and I think Terri's case exposed just how powerful and dangerous this 'death group' is and what's happening across America," her brother said.
"Our family has to continue to fight and speak out and try to expose just what this 'death group' is doing. I think having the Vatican showing their support really illuminates what is happening in America," he said.
Terri Schiavo's sister Suzanne Vitadamo said: "We did this for Terri. We believe she is sitting with the pope up in heaven. I'm sure she is looking down on us and smiling."
Only rather peeved and moved with indignation towards injustice that Mr. Jackpot Winner did not want to count the care that he spoke of as so dear in cost to that jury, as worth a red cent when it was the Schindlers who carried out the care.
D O N O R S.
Of course I did not say they are "retaliating because of money." You simply twisted my words, just like you twist the words of everyone you look down at through your pince-nez.
We crown you Drama Queen.
What do you mean "they" carried out the care? they all carried out the care. Should he have paid them the $10,000 or whatever it was? Of course. But we don't know his side of the story, only theirs. It almost incredible to think that this all may have been avoided if he had given them that $10,000.
Another great insightful post. If I put together all the replies to my responses, there'd probably be two sentences about the subject and 50 personal attacks. Are your arguments that bad that all you can do is attack me personally?
"The facts of this case are terribly sad, but they are not hard to understand. There's really nothing to be confused about, and as best I can tell, nothing's been overlooked by anyone. Terri's situation has arguably received more judicial attention, more medical attention, more executive attention, and more "due process," than any other guardianship case in history. Terri's family has had the benefit of excellent legal representation as well as the Governor's own top-notch attorneys, all of whom have scoured the case for ways to assist the effort to keep Terri's feeding tube in place."
Glad you agree.
It almost incredible to think that this all may have been avoided if he had given them that $10,000.
Again you twistedly try to imply I said something I did not say or mean. The Schindlers at bottom line, wanted to see Terri live, and with the fame of her case there wouldn't have been any dearth of resources to carry it out had they been granted custody. M$, embittered already, engaged in a battle of wills against the Schindlers and tried in various ways to see her off to an expeditious eternity, finally succeeding when this hellbound pseudo-Christian otherwise known as Greer bought into the agenda argued by another hellbound not-even-Christian Greek death ghoul. (If you can't see the spiritual side of this you have to virtually be a zombie yourself.)
I don't have to twist words. I have the facts on my side.
I would count just about any "legal site" as looie-liberal.
Facts? Like those which flashed into HINO's mind many years after the supposedly soulful moment in which Terri allegedly made her prescient bid for starvation?
You make me laugh!
Frankly, the only one who seems really embittered....is you.
When you argue nothing but ad hominems it sure is great to point out your hypocrisy.
Even if that were a "looie-liberal" site (and I'm sure that means something in your head), tell me one thing that isn't true in that paragraph I quoted.
Oh, and M$ is SOOOOO sweet that he won't even obey His Greerness Himself to tell the Schindlers where Terri's ashes now lay?
Start from the first letter and end at the last.
ROFLMAO!!!!! Oh my. I'm engaging in ad hominem attacks? ME???
Now you're just being silly.
Here's a lesson for you: Denial is not a river in Egypt.
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