Posted on 01/23/2006 7:12:44 AM PST by NYer
SAFETY HARBOR - Michael Schiavo and Jodi Centonze were married in a private ceremony at Espiritu Santo Catholic Church on Saturday.
"It was very emotional," said John Centonze, brother of the bride, just after the noon ceremony. "It's been a long time coming. A lot of things happened in between."
The wedding came a day after the couple applied for a Pinellas County marriage license and 10 months after the death of Schiavo's first wife, Terri.
Terri Schiavo died March 31, two weeks after her feeding tube was removed, and 15 years after a cardiac arrest that left her in what most doctors called a persistent vegetative state. Her death was a most public process, with the Florida Legislature, Congress, the courts, pundits and interest groups weighing in.
The wedding, in contrast, was private. Mindful of the media circus that had whirled about Terri Schiavo's hospice for weeks, along with throngs of protesters, the families kept the time and location of Saturday's ceremony a secret. Three St. Petersburg Times journalists arrived at the church, but were asked not to go in.
Schiavo wore a black tuxedo and Centonze wore a long, flowing, white wedding gown. Their two children attended. The bride and groom did not make any public comment.
"Except for the fact that the world knows their name, it was like any wedding you've ever been to," said Michael Hirsh, who attended, and who is helping Schiavo write a book titled Terri: The Truth.
Hirsh estimated about 80 people attended. The priest offered no homily. Afterward the wedding party went to a reception at East Lake Country Club.
"It was just a beautiful ceremony," Hirsh said. "Everyone there was just extremely happy for them."
Hirsh said, "There weren't a lot of dry eyes in the place."
Centonze agreed. "I had a couple tears," he said.
Schiavo and Jodi Centonze met in a dentist's office and began dating a few years later. Terri Schiavo already had suffered her accident, and already was living in a nursing home.
Schiavo referred to Jodi Centonze as his fiancee for more than five years, as the Terri Schiavo case worked its way through the court system, and the halls of the Florida Legislature and Congress.
Some of Schiavo's friends compared him during this time to a man whose wife had Alzheimer's disease; he still loved his wife but also wanted companionship. But in the superheated rhetoric of Terri Schiavo's last months, critics called him an adulterer because he had taken up with another woman while still married.
In 1990, cardiac arrest deprived Terri Schiavo of oxygen for five minutes. Doctors eventually diagnosed her as being in a persistent vegetative state, meaning she was not conscious of her surroundings.
However, Terri Schiavo's family sharply disagreed and consulted doctors who disputed or doubted the diagnosis of a persistent vegetative state. They hoped to keep her alive and give her extensive therapy.
An autopsy concluded that Terri Schiavo never would have recovered from the brain damage she suffered during her 1990 collapse. Doctors have never competely understood what brought on her initial cardiac arrest.
I know there are plenty of good people who are Catholics. But the institution/authority structure of the Church is totally whacked.
What religion are you?
GS, please don't judge all Catholics by the worst examples.
You wouldn't want us to do that regarding folks of your religious persuasion.
I didn't "judge all Catholics". But the institution itself is a teeming pit of hypocrisy.
You can find hypocrisy in any institution comprised of humans, not just the Catholic Church. There's plenty of hypocrisy to go around. It's everywhere.
By the way, I meant that just as a general comment, not to you personally.
Sure Jess, everyone can tell she was long gone at the time of this video. Don't you just crinch at the force in which they keep her alive in this video?
You guys really need to get lives of your own, stop whoring out the memory of a dead woman (who was gone long before she ceased breathing)and move on. This is obsessive behavior and it's doubtful Terri Schiavo would have wanted you to form a cult in her memory.
Amen to your Beautiful Prayer.
God did decide. Her family didn't accept the decision.
Yes, I DO know that he is not a Catholic - it looked as though I didn't know that in my post. What I meant was, IF Michael DID follow the Church's teachings, Catholic or not, I believe we wouldn't be posting here today. The Church's teachings are for all humanity, not just for Catholics. They teach what is right, such as, DO NOT MURDER!
Does anyone know...is this Jodi chickie hot??
Don't be a friggin' whacko!!!!
"Don't be a friggin' whacko!!!!"
That's asking too much.
I wish Michael and his new bride a wonderful future together. They both deserve it, after a horrendous experience I wouldn't have wished on my worst enemy. I'm deighted their wedding and reception went so well and that the press didn't find out about it until the last minute. I hope they and their children can now live in peace, as they both deserve.
deighted = delighted
Disgraceful. That SOB should have been excommunicated.
You ARE joking......she did NOT die a natural death. The state killed her.....STARVED and DEHYDRATED her. Hope you are luckier than Terri.
Excuse me, I certainly did not suggest that we flood his switchboard, I simply stated Perhaps he could advise us what his criteria are for officiating at a Christian Marriage. I did so because the website only had the standard 6 month parish membership as a requirement. I also stated Perhaps Schiavo has completely repented of his actions, gone to confession and done his penance. While I doubt it, I can't dispute that he could have done so.
My concern is not with Schiavo. I personally wish he'd just slink away. I also think that his relationship with his mistress is scandalous and I feel sorry for the children that have already been produced as a product of that relationship. I am glad, for the children's sake, that they now have a name.
Having said that, the sacrament of Marriage has meaning and should have some integrity. The fact that he got married at all is a good thing. I question whether that marriage should have happened in a Catholic church, rather than in a courthouse. There are only two people in the world that could answer the question of whether the marriage was licit...one is Schiavo (and I'd post his phone number if I had it so an interested party could ask) and the other is the ordained clergyman who officiated over that marriage.
As to acting like a liberal...if you have a problem, hit the abuse button!
I wonder if they danced on Terri's grave?
You know, I'm a little irritated with all the hand-wringing on this thread about "poor Jodi"...
At the minimum, she knows what she got herself into; at the worst, she was in on it from the get go. Divorcing her first husband because HER father was killed in an auto accident? Two, not one but TWO, out-of-court settlements on her own accidents?
Flowing white dress, my a**.
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