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our Catholic paper this week features an article trashing those who tried to defend Terri Schaivo.

Horrible. Who's your bishop?

I live in Florida, btw, and our bishops have been distinguished by their silence on the whole matter. That and the fact that they allowed her to be denied Communion without a peep.

But aside from that, Nat Hentoff started with the Voice when he was probably one of the world's finest writers on jazz.

Rap has overtaken jazz, and most people who really care about jazz one way or the other are probably not reading the Voice anymore, but he's still important. And for some reason, Nat Hentoff has a strange downright ethical streak in him that won't let him go with the flow - and on the basis of his past, the Voice still lets him publish. (Actually, they probably realize they get a lot more readers with Hentoff than they would without...)

I am quite sure our bishop did not read this piece before it was published. It was a "guest editorial," a reprint which came from something misnamed the Florida Catholic. I wanted to post it, but our Catholic paper's website is months behind, so it wasn't online. However, I will share the letter to the editor I wrote in response to it:

I was dismayed that you reprinted Janet Shelton's editorial, "Include Others in Terri Prayers," which originally appeared in The Florida Catholic. That newspaper has been tepid at best in its support for Church teachings against euthanasia, and Shelton's editorial is a classic example of the doublespeak the Culture of Death has enlisted in the current campaign to kill Terri Schaivo.
First of all, Shelton's argument is a red herring---change the subject to avoid arguing the point. The point at issue is Terri Schaivo's right to the ordinary means necessary to sustain her life, food and water. To step around that point, and Catholic teaching on it, Shelton reminds us of the many other people in the world whose circumstances in some respects parallel Terri's--the abused, the injured, even the hungry. All of these, she insinuates, somehow have a greater claim to life than Terri Schaivo, for "only God knows whether or not she wants to keep living in this world and not in heaven."
If this were not enough, Shelton directly attacks pro-lifers: "People who claim to support life have been known to kill and hurt others in their attempt to protect life they consider 'worthy' and those people spread fear that overrides any message of love they preach." What could she mean by "life they consider 'worthy'"? The lives of unborn children, I suppose, lives the Catholic Church teaches us are always and everywhere worthy of respect and protection--no quotes needed on "worthy."
Who are the alleged victims of these hateful pro-lifers? Here Shelton simply capitulates to the pro-death zealots. "Pray for the children," she insists, "who had to pass signs that called people murderers as they walked to and from school." For the children, eh? Sounds like a Planned Parenthood shill whining that passing kids may read some unpleasant descriptions of the work done inside their clinics.
I have been led to believe the archbishop must approve the content of the Georgia Bulletin. I'll bet a generous contribution to the Annual Fund that he never saw this piece!

I will wager my response never sees print.