Blessing the Grave [Terri Schindler-Schiavo]

CatholicExchange.com ^ | 10-29-03 | Fr. Frank Pavone

[Salvation]

by Fr. Frank Pavone

Other Articles by Fr. Frank Pavone

Blessing the Grave

10/29/05

I recently had the privilege of blessing the grave of Terri Schindler-Schiavo, who was murdered on March 31, 2005 by dehydration. Her grave is not far from the place where she died, and where people from around the world had gathered to protest and pray.

Those who visit the gravestone, however, will notice something highly unusual. While on most graves there is an inscription of two dates — when the person was born and when he or she died — on Terri's there are three.

Here's exactly what the grave says:

Born December 3, 1963

Departed this Earth February 25, 1990

At Peace March 31, 2005

The whole world knows that she died on March 31, 2005. National and global media were present at the scene for days, covering every detail. Media were present again when I preached at her funeral mass. We know when she died.

But her gravestone has become a pulpit for the euthanasia movement. Those who killed her are now using her grave as a platform for their twisted ideology. What they are trying to say is that once her brain was injured in 1990 and she was no longer functioning like most of us, she wasn't one of us anymore. She "departed this earth."

This is actually a variation on an ancient heresy, which says that we are really spirits inhabiting a body. Terri couldn't communicate normally. So, her "spirit" must have left her. The body was just a shell left behind.

Those who believe she really "departed this earth" in 1990 can therefore pretend it was OK to kill her in 2005. After all, it wasn't really her. She was already gone.

This is heresy, because Christianity teaches that we are a unity of body and soul, not simply a soul "using" a body. The body matters. What we do to the body, we do to the person.

Moreover, the gravestone inscription is a deep insult to all who are disabled, and to all those who love and care for them. Should they be considered already dead, too? Are we just wasting our time caring for them?

Euthanasia advocates would have us think so.

A recent news story about a disabled unborn child quoted one as saying, "There's no human life there." Isn't that the same idea? They think the baby has already "departed this earth," so they don't hesitate to abort the body.

As I blessed Terri's grave, I also prayed that God's people would be kept safe from this falsehood. And I recalled being in Terri's room the day she died. I remembered her face, dehydrated from not having had a drop of water in two weeks. I recalled seeing the flowers, inches away, on her night table. They were immersed in water. And as I left the grave, I gave a final glance to the vase of flowers that was standing by the stone.


Fr. Pavone is the Founding Director of Priests for Life. You may contact Priests for Life at PO Box 141172, Staten Island, NY 10314; Tel: 888-PFL-3448 or 718-980-4400; Fax: 718-980-6515; Email: mail@priestsforlife.org; Website: www.priestsforlife.org.

[Salvation]

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[lightman]

This is heresy, because Christianity teaches that we are a unity of body and soul, not simply a soul "using" a body. The body matters. What we do to the body, we do to the person.

ET INCARNATUS EST...ET HOMO FACTUS EST

For me, the most profound phrases of the Creed.

[vox_freedom]

BTTT
And may God bless Terri and protect her parents and siblings.

[Salvation]

**Moreover, the gravestone inscription is a deep insult to all who are disabled, and to all those who love and care for them.**

Such as my grandson with Down's Syndrome. He is so alive and precious!

[Ohioan from Florida]

God bless Father Pavone, Terri, and her family!

[willyd]

yet these same whackos are up in arms that the military isn't providing feeding tubes as humanely or efficiently as they could to the terrorist detainees that are on hunger strikes...

[kstewskis]

I still get an unsettled twinge in my gut, whenever I read the inscription on Terri's marker.

Terri was taken up by God on March 31st, 2005, no matter what the euthanasia crowd or that pathetic wretch of an ex husband of hers says.

God bless her, and the Schindlers.

[Dan Lacey]

Always appreciate your threads, Salvation. God bless.

[SaltyJoe]

Dr. David Stevens counters attorney-of-death George Felos' ridiculous lies about the "peaceful" death of dehydration to which Terri Schiavo is being cruelly subjected:

"'Contrary to those who try to paint a picture of a gentle process, death by dehydration is a cruel, inhumane and often agonizing death.' He says that most so called experts have not seen someone die under such circumstances. But Felos continues to paint a pretty picture of Terri looking peaceful with music playing in the room and flowers. How lovely for him."

[NewCenturions]

Bump!

[8mmMauser]

Pinged from Terri October Dailies

8mm

[Salvation]

Appreciate these visuals too. Thanks.

[8mmMauser]

....et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

That hour will be seared into my conscious permanently. It was the only time I was close to Fr. Pavone to see him, as very preoccupied he rushed past me into the hospice.

It was around a couple minutes after 9:00am as I recall, just as I finished my Rosary.

8mm

[cgk]

I guess those rumors that MS put "I kept my promise" on her headstone were just that.

Unless, and I do think he is this kind of monster: he actually buried her remains somewhere else, and the headstone in FL is just for show.

God Bless Terri's soul and peace to her family.

[livius]

This is actually a variation on an ancient heresy, which says that we are really spirits inhabiting a body. Terri couldn't communicate normally. So, her "spirit" must have left her. The body was just a shell left behind.

This is an excellent point. Gnostics have always been dualists, and since gnosticism is the modern religion - the sort of New Age glop that infests even the Catholic Church is an expression of it - it stands to reason that they would rely on the dualist argument to cover their evil.

Of course, they have always done this. Dualists could commit the most obscene acts and announce that they weren't really doing these things; it was just their bodies, and their spirits in the meantime remained pure.

Ancient heresies never go away; they just bubble up again with a different guise and a different evil.

[BykrBayb]

No, it was not just a rumour. Fr. Pavone didn't quote everything on the marker. He was only referring to the dates.

Here's an article from the pro-euthanasia St. Pete Times. Even they acknowledge that he put "I kept my promise" on her marker. The article includes a photo of her marker, with a vase of flowers to pretty it up. http://www.sptimes.com/2005/06/21/Tampabay/A_nearby_resting_place.shtml .

[BykrBayb]

Thanks for the photos. According to Felos de Sade, those people look beautiful, after having died peacefully.

[Gerish]

Still praying for Terri and the countless disabled like her. God Bless Father Pavone, a wonderful priest who had the guts to speak the truth when Terri's own Bishop of her diocese hid under a rock.