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Posted on 09/20/2007 4:09:05 PM PDT by wagglebee
Since the election of Pope Benedict, the Church has been renewed by an abundance of blessings flowing from the Vatican. In case you did not hear, the Pope's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has just released its answer to the question of providing nutrition and hydration (i.e., food and water) to persons in so-called vegetative states. Even though a child can figure out that it's not right to starve people to death, the Vatican set the issue to rest this week. In its technically-precise language, the CDF vindicated our beloved Terri Schiavo by saying that no one can dare to commit or justify such an atrocity as her killing by any interpretation of Catholic teachings. Period.
The CDF responded to a question from the US Catholic bishops who asked whether it was morally obligatory to give food and water to a patient in such a state. The response was unambiguous: "Yes. The administration of food and water even by artificial means is, in principle, an ordinary and proportionate means of preserving life. It is therefore obligatory to the extent to which, and for as long as, it is shown to accomplish its proper finality, which is the hydration and nourishment of the patient. In this way suffering and death by starvation and dehydration are prevented."
That was not all. The bishops further asked whether food and water could be withdrawn from the patient if there was no chance of recovery. Again, the CDF was unambiguous: "No. A patient in a 'permanent vegetative state' is a person with fundamental human dignity and must, therefore, receive ordinary and proportionate care which includes, in principle, the administration of water and food even by artificial means." And just to be sure that no stone was left unturned, the accompanying note said that this is always and everywhere true "in principle" even if there are truly exceptional circumstances where it is not morally obligatory to provide food and water. Such a case would be, for example, when the person's body is in such a state that it is physically unable to assimilate food and water. There would be no moral obligation to try and force nutrition into the person in that case, but clearly this is an exceptional circumstance which does not in any way undermine the principle of absolute respect for life in its most vulnerable moments.
How many of us, at the time of Terri Schiavo's death, actually heard even so-called "good Catholics" say that they should just let her die because "no one should have to live that way" and other nonsense like that? The real message of this declaration is that no one should have to think that murderous way any more.
The Vatican has spoken with the clear voice of conscience and has also vindicated all of us who fought for Terri's life and dignity, not because we were pro-life activists, but because we are Catholics. Anyone who advocated her death in 2005, whether by sloppy reasoning or culpable agreement with the atrocity, needs to seriously repent and re-evaluate his conscience in light of the Church's teaching. After this declaration, there is no excuse for not getting it right.
Most culpable of all were the so-called "Catholic" theologians, false priests, such as Richard McBrien and John Paris, who shamelessly advocated Terri's death when she was being sold to her killers for thirty pieces of silver. Now that the CDF has made clear what any child knows, this would be the time for them to take a refresher course on actual Catholic teachings.
Amen!
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I’m glad they have done this. But I doubt it’ll make a hill of beans difference to the screwed up people like Michael Schiavo and the court system down there (as well as other places where this is happening).
They already know the truth, but suppress it in unrighteousness.
Please pray for a listener’s Mom,we are fighting for her life right now and Terri’s sister is helping but the lastest news is not good,Thanks,Fatima
At the time, I was a very frequent poster on a joke site that had a large political board; I was very much in the minority and the liberals and the theological hooligans that dominated the site (the owner was SB and even he kinda let them run wild) just had a heyday over the case.
I believe that Ms. Schiavo was murdered slowly and painfully over many years and that the legal system there, in spite of the now Catholic Jeb Bush’s efforts, showed its blackened soul to the nation; and the nation’s legal system showed its blackened soul to the world.
I concur. It did not surprise me at all that Pope John Paul died shortly after Terri. I fear that our country is going to go through a period of deep tribulation as Israel did when she rejected God and His blessings. May the Lord preserve us all. As I type this, a college athlete is charged with killing her newborn baby and then going to work afterwards. We will reap what we have sowed.
Oh, but you cannot say that, sir.
The Sainted Calvin will shrivel your unworthy soul. You cannot reap what you have sowed. It isn’t, well, unfair.
Sorry.
The spirit of our times is mixed. With JPII and now the German Shepherd who is exceeding all our expectations, we are making spiritual headway. I think that we’ll make more headway that we’re losing.
**I fear that our country is going to go through a period of deep tribulation as Israel did when she rejected God and His blessings. May the Lord preserve us all.**
I join you in this fear. May the Lord bless the United States as we try to bring an end to abortion.
Blessed Mary ever virgin, be our intercessor!
It is long overdue.
Best regards,
I concur. And I'm glad the Vatican has spoken out. And when Terri's slow death wasn't fast enough for her 'husband' (I use that term loosely), the courts ordered that it be sped up by starving and dehydrating her completely. I couldn't agree with it then, as a supposed compassionate way to 'let' Terri die, and I disagree more vehemently now. Let? It didn't let her go, it forced her to go and in a gruesome way. A way we don't treat animals.
I do remember debating with some of the enlightened during these times. Some of them were waxing lyrical about the euphoria that one experiences during the last few days of dehydration.
Funny, though, none of them wished to experience that euphoria. I wonder why.
I agree. Terri Schiavo was made to die in way that we wouldn’t treat an animal. If an animal is really that sick, you euthanize it but you don’t starve and dehydrate it to death. Euthaniasia is illegal to do to humans.
IIRC, wasn’t it Bishop Lynch (of Clearwater) who stood silently by as Terri was being fought over in the courts, and eventually starved to death by her husband? If I indeed have the correct bishop, I wonder which rock he’ll crawl under now?
I don’t know... I couldn’t stomach listening then :(
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