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Is Judge Greer Following Hitler's Lead? Where Have You Gone Clemens von Galen? Mercy Killing Comes of Age in America
Action T-4 and Bishop Clemens von Galen
In 1939, with war looming, Hitler implemented Action T-4, a national mercy killing program to eliminate “life unworthy of life.” Based on a medical questionnaire filled out by three doctors, various criterions were established to determine whether the sick or deformed were to live or die.
Doctors were required to report on all patients who suffered from schizophrenia, epilepsy, senile disorders, therapy resistant paralysis, syphilitic diseases, retardation, encephalitis, Huntington's chorea and other neurological conditions, as well as patients who had been continuously institutionalized for at least 5 years. The program was implemented and thousands were killed. Then a Catholic Bishop discovered what was going on.
On August 3, 1941, Bishop Clemens von Galen delivered a sermon in the Munster Cathedral attacking the Nazi euthanasia program. Von Galen called it "plain murder." He then urged German Catholics to "withdraw ourselves and our faithful from their (Nazi) influence so that we may not be contaminated by their thinking and their ungodly behavior."
Hitler was furious. In the midst of a two front war he was suddenly faced with the wholesale rejection by German Catholics. Hesitant to make von Galen a martyr, he rescinded Action T-4 within a few weeks. The bishop was harassed throughout the war, but never harmed.
Fast forward to 2003
Terri Schindler-Schiavo has been disabled since 1990, when a heart attack cut off oxygen to her brain. Today she is able to breath on her own, but requires a feeding tube (inserted into her stomach.) In spite of her inability to swallow or feed herself (for which she never received therapy to learn on her own) Terri has been responsive and is trying to communicate. She is not on artificial life support. She can move, laugh, cry, vocalize emotions, and is responsive to questions, instructions, and the presence of family and other visitors.
"We have 13 affidavits from physicians on record with the court stating that Terri is not in the condition that is being represented, that she's not in a comatose or 'persistent vegetative state,'" Terri’s father explained in a press release. "And they're all saying she can recover with proper treatment."
In spite this progress, her husband and ‘guardian’ - who is living with another woman who has borne him a child - has successfully fought to have Terri’s feeding tubes removed, insisting she “wouldn’t want to live this way” and trundling out as court ‘experts’ physicians who are active in the so called “right to die” movement. In spite of questions over Michael Schiavo’s motives (he stands to inherit hundreds of thousands of dollars in a trust fund) Florida Circuit Judge George Greer has ordered Terri’s feeding tube to be removed on October 15. Action T-4, which failed in Germany, has been successfully implemented in America... Hiel Greer!
The responses from many pro-life leaders and those representing disabled Americans have been forceful.
Nancy Thompson, Chairman of the Board of the National Catholic Partnership on Disability, said in a July 10, 2003 press release, “Unfortunately the Schiavo case is one of too many in recent months in which the guardians of people with neurological disabilities have the potential to gain financially from the termination of basic medical care and potentially helpful rehabilitation.”
In an August 7, 2003 press release, Anna Faircloth of Concerned Women for America noted, “(Michael Schiavo) has denied aggressive medical treatment and prohibited caretakers from giving (Terri) medication for life-threatening infections… Since her debilitation, Terri has never had a mammogram, and her husband has not allowed doctors to clean her teeth since 1995.”
Columnist Jane Chastain wrote on September 4, 2003, “If a child is mistreated or denied proper care or medical treatment by a parent or guardian, the state will step in and place that child in the hands of someone who will protect the child from harm. Why should a disabled person be denied this protection?”
Auf Wiedersehen, Von Galen, Good Bye
Terry Schindler Schiavo is a Roman Catholic. Perhaps the most startling and depressing aspect of her case has been the lame response by the Florida Catholic Bishops.
"I find it inexplicable," wrote Cecilia H. Martin, editor of The Catholic Advocate in the St. Augustine Diocese, "that the Florida bishops have made ten collaborative pleas for mercy to the governor in the last five years for persons on death row and yet have not make a single public statement for Terri Schiavo. Church staffers even have a 'Bells Campaign' wherein parishes are encouraged to toll their bells for two minutes on the days prisoners are executed, but for Terri? Silence. We are waiting for the bishops to break that silence and defend the life of this innocent woman."
Where the Bishops have commented, the lack of forcefulness has been devastating to the Schindler family and Catholics nationwide who orchestrated 30,000 petitions that were sent to Florida Governor Jeb Bush in Terri’s defense. "I strongly recommend that...Terri's family be allowed to attempt a medical protocol which they feel would improve her condition," wrote Bishop Robert Lynch. Hardly ‘fighting words,’ and a far cry from Bishop von Galen’s courageous testimony.
Lynch’s comments, which came after months of criticism for the Florida Bishop’s silence, were evidently intended to clarify his comments from the October of 2002, when he said, "as there is significant disagreement among the family of Terri Schiavo...the church will refrain from passing judgment on the actions of anyone in this tragic moment."
On the contrary, there is no disagreement among ‘Terri’s family’ - that is, her mother, father, brothers and sisters - as to her state. To include Michael Schiavo, who has denied Terri care and lobbied to have her killed, as a ‘family’ member, as Lynch did, has been criticized not just by the Schindlers, but in the secular press.
In September, the Catholic Media Coalition sent letters to all of the nearly 200 Roman Catholic Dioceses in the United States. The letter pleaded for the U.S. Catholic Bishops to intercede on Terri’s behalf. In spite of sexual abuse scandals, it’s clear that the Bishops have not forgotten how to burrow their heads in the sand.
To date, one response has been received: Bishop Daniel F. Walsh of the Diocese of Santa Rosa, California wrote a two sentence letter on September 17, 2003, "I wish to acknowledge your letter of September 9, 2003, concerning the Theresa Schindler Schiavo situation in Florida. While I am not knowledgeable of the facts involved, save for your letter, I would strongly support the statement issued by the Bishop's of Florida in this matter since they are the ones responsible and in the area to make the proper moral judgments."
With moral leadership like this, it is easy to comprehend why the American Catholic Church is in such an accelerating state of decline.
Why should God bless America?
It’s hard to imagine what Bishop Clemens von Galen thought as he mounted the podium to deliver his sermon in 1941. Would a bullet stop him before he could finish? Would the SS officers standing in the back finish him off after Mass? Would he be shot, or hacked to death like St. Thomas Beckett, who was beheaded in his own cathedral by the king’s thugs?
Von Galen’s bravery and the Florida Bishops half-hearted response to Terri’s death sentence contrast each other completely. Viewed in the context of centuries of martyrs - Catholic men and women who willingly died rather than allow evil - the Florida Bishops are worse than cowards. They are a disgrace. It’s hard to imagine any Christian approaching Terri’s case with such coldness and lack of empathy.
What does it really mean to be an American when a sitting judge can sentence an invalid to death by dehydration in a manner Adolph Hitler couldn’t even get away with? And what does it imply when there isn’t an outcry or von Galen-style protest from the clergy or the larger population? Don’t the senior citizens of Florida realize that they are next?!
If this is “one nation under God” with “liberty and justice for all” than reserve me a corner in the catacombs. I hear four riders approaching, and winds begin to howl...
In the end, Terri Schindler Schiavo may be the lucky one. While she goes on to her eternal reward, nervous Christians are left to fend for themselves in a hostile, increasingly pagan culture, without moral support from their religious ‘leaders,’ and facing imprisonment or extermination from judges who have transcended Nazism and moved into realm of the Satanic.
It takes a lot of nerve for a people capable of such depravity and moral cowardice to ask God to bless America. His love may be infinite, but His patience has got to be wearing very, very thin.
For information on Terri, and how you can help, see www.terrisfight.org. |
