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."
The Schiavo's are good and decent people, and they are being trashed for going to Rome.
No...do you know if they did?
I'm not trashing anyone...I'm saying they did it for a photo op. That's not trashing. When it comes to this subject people here lose all sense of proportion. I'll tell you this, I wish people here would devote this much passion to the living as they do to the dead.
No I don't.
But since it's still possible they paid their own way, we still don't know there is any benefit to them that might be called "profit."
We did. Right up to the moment when Felos, Greer and the HINO killed her.
Yea, and they set up their own meeting with the Pope too. Be real.
Ok...I'll change that...I wish people here would devote this much passion to the living as they do the dead and the near dead.
well, have they done that? that's the difference between profiteering and promotion.
Some would say that's in the eye of the beholder.
Do you have a link to the photo(s)?
there is an issue here for Catholics. in fact, during the whole debate here during her last days, I wondered why so many people I knew in what should have been an "anti-Terri" liberal locale like NYC metro, were pro-Terri. Then I realized that most of the people I know and talk to everyday - are Catholics and religious Jews - that's why.
Oh, post #9. Nevermind.
I'm being very real. Both this Pope and his predecessor understand the important precedent being set by this case. Defending life is the Pope's job.
Thus, if the Schindler's wanted to be in the front row at a public audience, all they'd need to do is tell their parish priest.
It would be a good idea for everyone to at least get the facts straight. I believe it's the Schindlers who went to Rome, not the Schiavos.
And you know this to be a fact how?
Sorry, I goofed about that. I meant Schindlers. I'll wear a hair shirt to bed. Since I don't happen to own one, I'll have to improvise with some cat hair or something.
Well, if a hair shirt helps you to post things with accuracy, go for it. Just don't shave any cats.
Aside from this type of post, a *much-deserved break* for the Schindlers .. God Bless Them .. a more devoted family there just couldn't be. May God grant them peace in time. BTT!!
If there were awards for families of the year, it should go to the Schindlers.
Excerpts:
"ROME - The family of Terri Schiavo met with a top cardinal Tuesday to thank him for the Vatican's support as they sought to keep the brain-damaged woman alive.
Schiavo's father, Bob Schindler, said that support from Cardinal Renato Martino and other Vatican officials had helped the family "spiritually" in their unsuccessful battle against a court order to have Schiavo's feeding tube removed.
"Just knowing that he supported us gave us strength," said Schiavo's mother, Mary Schindler, following a 15-minute private audience with Martino."
(snip)
"Martino heads the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and had urged in February that the feeding tube not be removed.
The Vatican condemned her death as "arbitrarily hastened," and called the removal of her feeding tube a violation of the principles of Christianity and civilization. Martino said Tuesday that Schiavo's death was "an insult to human dignity."
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