Posted on 11/12/2003 4:27:44 PM PST by nickcarraway
The Bishops Speak
Title: In the Matter of Terri Schiavo
Author: Bishop Robert F. Vasa
Date: Wednesday, November 12, 2003
(Editor's Note: The following is a statement released by Bishop Robert F. Vasa in the Diocese of Baker, Oregon regarding the Catholic Church's position on Terri Schiavo's case.)
For Mary and Bob Schindler: ..."Cannot people see that Terri is their baby and that their love for her has a value and that their love tells the world that Terri has great worth? To treat her as if she were already dead is cruel and inhumane. To treat her as if she is dying is likewise ludicrous." Kindest Regards +RFV
The Catholic Church teaches that hydration and nutrition are simply water and food. These must always be provided as long as the food or water itself or the method of delivery is not unduly burdensome to the PATIENT. There does not appear to be any indication from Terri that the provision or the method of provision of food and water is burdensome to her.
The one 'burden', which so many seem so determined to lift from her, is that one thing that allows Terri to continue to be a living breathing human person, life itself. Life itself cannot be the burden from which we in the Catholic Church seek to deliver the faithful. This is the Assisted Suicide attitude.
Life is a grace and a blessing and yes the living of that life does entail some burdens, sometimes great burdens, but the solution can be neither murder nor suicide - these are offenses against life itself and the Lord who gives it.
Terri is alive. She is kept alive by the same things that keep me alive - Food, water, air. Her disability deprives her of the ability to ingest these things, it does not deprive her of the ability to digest them. She may well die in the future from an inability to digest food but it would be murder to cause her death by denying her the food she still has the ability to digest and which continues to provide for her a definite benefit - life itself.
Kindest regards,
Bishop Robert F. Vasa
Diocese of Baker
Box 5999
Baker, Oregon 97708
(541) 388-4004
How simple. How true.
Wow, such simple wisdom, so much truth in those words.
I do believe in miracles, but...
Also here is a catholic page (catholiccitizens.org) with lots of statements and links on Terri Schiavo.
Actually they have. Here's a link to the Diocese of St. Petersburg's website with the news releases.
"One may even repeat the sacrament of marriage. For the death of one’s spouse dissolves the matrimonial bond and allows the surviving spouse to enter a valid sacramental marriage with another. Of course, if one killed one’s spouse in order to marry another particular individual, the marriage would still be invalid. For as canon 1090 states: “§1 One who, with a view to entering marriage with a particular person, has killed that person’s spouse, or his or her own spouse, invalidly attempts marriage. §2 They also invalidly attempt mariage with each other who, by mutual physical or moral action, brought about the death of either’s spouse.” While such incidents are fortunately rare, they nevertheless still happen in our day."
They were talking about this on another thread. If this is true and his girlfriend is Catholic, they can't have a Catholic wedding they kill Terri. For purposes of church weddings, Catholic canon law trumps civil law.
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