Dedicated to reporting, proclaiming and defending the truth
about the Catholic Church.
November 10, 2003
The
Very Reverend Bishop
President,
Your Excellency:
An
unprecedented phenomenon in the struggle between the sanctity of life and the
culture of death confronts us. A
hitherto unknown Catholic woman, Mrs. Theresa Schindler Schiavo, has become a
unifying symbol for the disabled, the abandoned, and those persons for whom
society has no use. [See www.terrisfight.org]
Terri Schiavo, a 39 year-old Florida woman rendered cognitively disabled
from an undetermined cause, embodies the characteristics of persons whose lives
appear to lack “quality,” whom a pagan society would willingly eliminate
through court ordered euthanasia.
Theresa
Schiavo is alive today for one reason only: she has an intact family.
That family, father and mother, brother and sister have fought valiantly
to save her life from an adulterous husband who relentlessly seeks her death by
the barbaric method of dehydration/starvation. In our society where the family
is maligned and constantly under attack, the Schindlers admirably demonstrate
what we know a family should be.
The
Schiavo case is purposefully being used as a wedge to further the cause of
physician assisted suicide and to bring euthanasia within the legal boundaries
of the Constitution under the same ruse of privacy rights that are employed to
kill the pre-born. After all, there’s not much difference between an umbilical
cord and a feeding tube, is there? The
resemblance between Schindler vs Schiavo and Roe vs Wade is unmistakable.
The
instant recognition by a massive grassroots citizenry that the Schiavo case
involves the intentional killing of a living, non-terminal, disabled person
became so powerful that it awakened a nation.
With the media in tow and the Internet on fire, Terri Schiavo became a
household name. The outcry against injustice was so great that the governor and
legislative body of a highly politically volatile state acted within forty-eight
hours to confirm a singular law, i.e. Terri’s Law, to prevent the starvation
death of Mrs. Schiavo.
The crescendo of Terri’s Fight has brought the life issues crashing to the front of many minds. With so much misinformation in the public square, our Catholic people are confused regarding the Church’s teaching. Many senior citizens are signing Living Wills that make them vulnerable to being denied food and water like Terri Schiavo. Therefore, we ask our bishops to publicly enunciate
the Church’s teaching regarding euthanasia, physician
assisted suicide, and the moral requirements of care for all sick and disabled
individuals as well as those facing a terminal illness. Catholics need to know
that food and water, no matter in what form they are delivered, are the
God-given right of all persons. The
removal of nutrition/hydration with the subsequent intent to cause
death, as in the case of Mrs. Schiavo, is strictly forbidden by Catholic moral
teaching.
The
Terri Schiavo case is now widely known and recognized by many for what it is,
the ideological struggle between the spiritual forces who revere the sanctity of
life and the utilitarian forces who have scant regard for humanity in its
compromised states. Not
surprisingly, the liberal media elites have misrepresented the facts of the
case. Unfortunately, this bias has not been missing from the statements and
writings of certain misguided priests: Fr. Desmond Daly and Fr.Gerald Murphy of
the St. Petersburg Diocese, Fr. Kevin O’Rourke, O.P. who was interviewed by
the Miami Herald, and Fr. Kevin Wildes, S.J. who appeared on Nightline. All have
publicly misstated Church teaching and justified what the Catechism of the
Catholic Church (CCC) forbids: “an act or
omission (our emphasis) which of itself or by intention causes death in
order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the
dignity of the human person.” The scandal of these priests publicly advocating
Terri’s murder by neglect must be undone. The overarching culture of death and
societal injustice cuts across all diocesan and state boundaries threatening
many, but Terri, a daughter of the Church, is in imminent danger at this moment.
So we call upon this body of bishops to make a strong, unequivocal, public
defense of her life with all possible haste.
Throughout
the years we have been more than disappointed that decisive public action from
our bishops has not been forthcoming regarding vital pro-life issues. Its
absence has been particularly shocking in the case of Terri Schiavo and other
disabled individuals dehydrated to death in the judicial coliseum with a
complicit media giving its thumbs down. Where is the bishops’ prophetic voice
addressing these atrocities? Your startling absence from the public square as
the laity battle these monumental injustices is a scandal to all people. Terri
and others like her need your vigorous public defense. The situation is urgent!
We have named November 30th, the first Sunday of Advent, Theresa
Schindler Schiavo Day. We will be
doing all we can to raise awareness of her plight among Catholics of the
Assuring you of our constant prayers we remain
Sincerely in Christ,
Mary Ann
Kreitzer, President
Catholic
Media Coalition
For member organizations
see:
http://www.catholicmediacoalition.org