Category: Culture War

A number of people around St. Blog’s, following the lead of the conservative media, have pointed out that Michael Schiavo stands to make a nice lump of cash as soon as Terri is gone. This may be true — he reportedly stands to make something — but I personally question whether money is what is truly at stake with Mike Schiavo.
At least two friends of Terri’s family alleged to me at the vigil that on the day she went into the coma she had decided to divorce Mike. Her family also maintains, if I understand correctly, that there had been a history of domestic violence between her and Mike. I know that at least one of Mike’s former girlfriends alleges something simliar. In addition, the family’s attorney has mentioned evidence that suggests Terri may have been the victim of domestic violence at the time she collapsed.
That being said, my job as a canonist is to examine and question evidence for inconsistencies. So doing so has simply become second nature for me. I have a few questions after reflecting upon recent events. These are: 1) if this is just about money, why does Mike appear to have refused the family’s offer that he simply take the money in exchange for giving them back custody of Terri? 2) If Terri is really in a permanent vegetative state, why the strong objections to her parents videotaping her? Shouldn’t the videotape in fact support his position?
Thus obviously some other motivation is at play here. At one extreme, the possibility is misguided love. In other words, he truly loves Terri and mistakenly believes that this is what is best for her. I don’t think this is the case, however, since such behavior would appear to be inconsistent with his getting engaged to and having a child with another woman. Actions speak louder than words.
Other middle possibilities include the following. He wants the money, but taking it and running would make him look like an even bigger jerk, so pulling the feeding tube gets him what he wants while saving him much embarrassment. The only real objection I can think of to this scenario, which I admit is rather weak, is why would he engage in such lengthy and costly litigation if this was the case?
Another possibility is that he now wants to move on with his life and start over again with his present girlfriend. But in today’s culture of marital instability, would the majority within society really fault him for throwing in the towel, turning Terri over to her parents, divorcing her and giving her parent what money remains? Again, if the issue is calling it quits, why the endurance on his part when it comes to lengthy and costly litigation? Why not just walk away?
Thus I’m left wondering whether there isn’t another reason behind his actions. Given his reported history of domestic violence, is he now trying to beat the rap for something truly incriminating that would come to light if Terri recovered? I don’t know the answer to this. I can only speculate, however, something simply isn’t lining up here in my opinion.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 16, 2003
Catholic Media Coalition
www.catholicmediacoalition.org
Contact: Mary Ann Kreitzer
(540) 459-9493
CATHOLIC MEDIA COALITION CONDEMNS EUTHANASIA OF TERRI SCHIAVO
The euthanasia murder of Terri Schindler Schiavo by starvation and dehydration which began yesterday at 2:00 p.m. is a violation of her right to life and a crime against humanity. The Catholic Media Coalition condemns it unequivocally and calls on every Catholic bishop in the United States to express public outrage against this violation of Terri’s right to life and her human dignity. We also call on her bishop, Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg to defend her right to receive the sacraments and the comfort of the faith in this time of trial.
The Catholic Church, of which Terri is a member, teaches that food and water are ordinary means of life and may never be removed unless an individual is imminently dying (within a few hours or days) or cannot receive benefit from them. Terri clearly does not meet that standard. She is not dying and has obviously benefited over the years from tube feeding. Legal decisions allowing the deliberate killing by neglect of the weak and defenseless are always immoral.
Pope John Paul II addressed this issue in his letter to the Bishops of the World issued June 21, 1991. “When legislative bodies enact laws that authorize putting innocent people to death and states allow their resources and structures to be used for these crimes, individual consciences, often poorly formed, are all the more easily led into error. In order to break this vicious circle, it seems more urgent than ever that we should forcefully reaffirm our common teaching, based on sacred Scripture and tradition, with regard to the inviolability of innocent human life.”
On October 2, 1998 the Pope specifically addressed the issue of nutrition and hydration affirming a statement of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life committee saying it, “rightly emphasizes that the omission of nutrition and hydration intended to cause a patient’s death must be rejected and that, while giving careful consideration to all the factors involved, the presumption should be in favor of providing medically assisted nutrition and hydration to all patients who need them.” The Pope made this statement the same day former Louisville, KY anchorman, Hugh Finn, had his feeding tube removed by legal order at the request of his wife Michele and against the wishes of his parents and siblings. Hugh died an agonizing death nine days later. [See here]
Mary Ann Kreitzer, President of the Catholic Media Coalition, expressed profound sorrow at the tepid response of the Catholic bishops to this crisis of euthanasia. “I’m ashamed as a Catholic to say that our Coalition contacted every bishop in the country asking for their support for Terri and received only a handful of replies. Most of those responding told us they would not take a stand. Her situation is not unique. Murder by neglect is occurring with greater frequency around the country with the complicity of medical staff and the courts. If the Catholic hierarchy fails to speak with authority their silence will be construed as consent. Bishop Lynch’s behavior has been baffling. It took incredible pressure from the CMC to finally get a statement from the Florida bishops, and even that is tainted with inaccuracies. We desperately need men of courage like Bishop Clemens von Galen who mounted his pulpit in Munster Cathedral on August 3, 1941 and blasted the German euthanasia program that was murdering the helpless. He did not stop it, but most certainly reduced the death toll. Doctors and judges were responsible for that deadly program and the United States is now on the same road they traveled. Unless we vigorously defend the innocent, like Terri Schiavo, and repress these evil judges and the doctors who are complicit with them, we will have euthanasia on a massive scale.
“Think of the police officers surrounding Terri’s bed and the Hospice building to make sure no one interferes with her deliberate premeditated murder. Think of Judge Greer who ordered Terri’s execution and the Supreme Court of Florida and the federal judge who would not stop him. Then consider Bishop von Galen’s words. ‘None of us will be safe.There will be no police to protect the victims, no court of appeal..Woe to mankind, woe to the German people, if we thus transgress God’s commandment, delivered amid thunder and lightning from Mount Sinai and implanted in the heart and conscience of man, Thou shalt not kill.'”
The Catholic Media Coalition stands with Terri and the Schindler family in this terrible trial and offer our prayers. We share their moral outrage at this cruel injustice. We beg all people of good will to storm heaven for redress and to enter the political arena to restore morality to this country which has strayed so far from our founding principles. We urge citizens to continue contacting Governor Jeb Bush begging his intervention. It is time for a showdown between the executive branch of government and a runaway judiciary that has embraced the murder of the innocent.
END

Today was very gut-wrenching. Sonya, the girls, our friend Marina and I frequented the prayer vigil and news conference for Terri Schiavo in Tampa. The bad news is that they pulled her feeding tube. I was with her brother Bobby, my friend Carlos from the National Catholic Register, and some reporter from the New York Times just before it happened. It was really sad. I was on the cell with Pat Madrid when we got the news, and we had to cut the call short because I couldn’t stop crying for Terri. My three-year old daughter was with me and I just could not help but ask, “What if it was her in that bed while Sonya and I were being deprived the right to fight for her life?”
Monsignor said it best when he said that Terri’s parents now know how Our Blessed Mother felt on Good Friday. One thing I should note, and although it pains me to admit this, many of the people there were extremely disappointed with what they saw as a weak response from the Florida bishops. In fact, there was probably more anger expressed against Bishop Lynch than against Terri’s husband and the judge who took his side. Please pray for Terri’s friends and family, and please pray for the Catholic clergy as well.
Nevertheless, there was some good news that gives us hope. First off, Governor Jeb Bush is really concerned and contacted the family to let them know he has his legal team working on trying to open another possibility for his intervention. He is extremely concerned, and not just as a politician. He has been very supportive of the family throughout this ordeal, but he wants his interventions to accomplish as much as possible to save Terri and not simply to be a example of political grandstanding that does nothing. Jeb is a very decent human being. Secondly, and more importantly, the misunderstanding between the Monsignor who is providing pastoral and spiritual support for Terri and her family, and the lawyers for the other side, came to some sort of resolution that restores Monsignor’s pastoral visitation privileges (as well as the visitation privileges of Terri’s family). It still is not ideal, in that the other side has added more restrictions, but barring a miracle, at least Terri won’t die alone — deprived of family and pastoral assistance. Please continue to pray for a miracle, however…
Posted below is my wife’s press release for the Alhambra which we just submitted to the Wanderer and various other Catholic news organizations. Please feel free to pass it along, and please pray:
—————————
***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***
Catholic Fraternal Organization Requests Prayer For Terri Schiavo
Sonya K. Davey
PINELLAS PARK, Fla (OrderAlhambra.org) – Responding to the court-imposed removal of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube, the International Order of Alhambra called for prayer in support of Terri. “Following our Holy Father’s intervention, it goes without saying that my prayers and the prayers of the entire Order of Alhambra are with Terri Schiavo and her family,” Edward Fiorella stated.
Fiorella is the Order of Alhambra’s Supreme Commander, which makes him the highest ranking official of this hundred-year-old Catholic fraternal organization. The Alhambra’s primary focus is service to the needs of the mentally and cognitively disabled. “As Catholics belonging to a Catholic organization,” Fiorella continued, “we support the Church’s teaching on the dignity and value of every human life. This includes Terri’s. Therefore, I have asked our members and the members of our ladies’ auxiliary to keep praying for Terri.”
Pete Vere is a canon lawyer who specializes in the rights of mentally and cognitively disabled. He is also a supreme officer of this five-thousand member Catholic fraternal organization. He attended the October 15th prayer vigil held by Terri’s friends and family outside the hospice when doctors removed her feeding tube. “This is just a sad day for every Catholic concerned with the Culture of Life and the rights of those with some form of cognitive or mental disability,” Vere said. “Not only is the state sanctioning involuntary euthanasia, but this sets an awful precedent in which society judges an individual by his or her perceived utility. God created us human beings, not human doings. All human life is valuable in His eyes.”
As Vere prayed the Divine Mercy chaplet with other Catholics gathered at the vigil – many of whom were from the local special needs community – the mood was visibly somber. “We cannot begin to imagine the threat this poses to our special brothers and sisters in Christ,” Vere stated. “I am particularly concerned for those who suffer from more severe forms of cognitive and mental disability. Under this new utilitarian ethic and definition of human life, will their right to life be challenged as well? In terms of mental and cognitive capacity, how far are they removed from Terri?”
“Recent video footage clearly shows Terri positively responding to stimulation from her friends and family,” Vere added. “She smiles, she laughs, and she opens her eyes, turns her head and raises her eyebrows. A number of medical experts assure me that these are not the responses of one who has fallen into a persistent vegetative state as the courts and Terri’s husband maintain.”
Besides medical, ethical and political considerations, Vere also feels that Terri’s situation involves a religious and spiritual dimension. “As members of the Order of Alhambra,” Vere explained, “we must implore the intercession of our patron St. Francis of Assisi. He will obtain for us the grace to stand firm for the culture of life and assert the basic human dignity of our special brothers and sisters in Christ. I invite members of all other Catholic fraternal organizations to make this stand as well. Unless we take action now, Terri will die from starvation and dehydration within the next two weeks. This involves a most cruel and painful death. As my friend Fr. Rob Johansen recently noted, ‘she will die not of any disease, but because a judge has ordered her to die. She will die in spite of ample evidence that her condition is treatable and improvable.’ In short, there is no tomorrow for Terri and others like her. Now is time to pray, contact your legislators and make your voice heard.”
Many of Terri’s friends and family still hope for a miracle. One such individual is Msgr. Thaddeus Malanowski who has provided pastoral care to Terri and her family throughout this difficult ordeal. “It is no coincidence that today is the feast of St. Theresa of Avilla – Terri’s namesake,” Msgr. Malanowski shared with those who had gathered outside the hospice to pray. “Additionally, the Holy Father has scheduled Mother Teresa’s beatification for this Sunday. I spent twenty years as a missionary among Mother Teresa and her sisters. Mother was a great apostle of the Gospel of Life in our time. I have asked that she intercede from above for Terri.” Msgr. Malanowski grasped a relic of Mother Teresa as he shared his hope for a miracle with others who had gathered at the prayer vigil.
For more information on the efforts of Terri’s friends and family to save her life, please visit the following website at: http://www.terrisfight.org
[Sonya K. Davey is the mother of two children, including one in the womb, and a pro-life activist. She possesses a bachelor of science with a concentration in biology. In her spare time she volunteers with the Sultanas, which is the women’s auxiliary of the Order of Alhambra.]

To put it bluntly, I have a few reservations about canon 1398. “A person who actually procures an abortion incurs a latae sententiae excommunication,” the canon states. Please do not mistake my reservations as support for abortion. In no way do I condone this intrinsically evil act, which the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches “is gravely contrary to the moral law” as well as an “abominable crime” (2271).
Yet my experience in ministry has taught me that most women who abort their child act under some sort of emotional, mental and/or psychological duress. Despite what many feminists claim, I seldom come across an abortion that is freely chosen – that is, chosen without coercion from some outside individual or organization. Sometimes this pressure comes from a boyfriend who refuses any responsibility for the pregnancy. Other times, parents seek a quick fix for their teenaged daughters. “Get rid of it or get out of the house!” is, sadly, the execution decree of all-too-many grandchildren. But even more reprehensible, in my opinion, is the coercion a distraught pregnant mother finds among the very women’s organizations that claim to uphold her freedom of choice. As my friend Mark Shea often reminds me, abortion is the principal sacrament of initiation into the culture of death. Therefore, a woman often discovers when dealing with feminist pregnancy crisis centers that her choices do not include bringing the child within her womb to full term.
Thus abortion is a traumatic choice often made under duress. As the reality of the choice to end the life of one’s child sets in, the woman is left in need of the Church’s help and compassion. For once her child is dead, the woman will find neither help nor compassion from the abortion industry. Yet alone and ashamed, the perception of canonical censures only further drives these women away from the Church in many instances. This compounds the problem.
These women know abortion is wrong. They feel it in their soul every time they see a mother with a stroller pass by on the sidewalk. Their heart cries out with every advertisement for diapers that flashes across the television screen. What these women need is Christ’s healing touch in the confessional, as well as sustained pastoral support from pro-life organizations like Project Rachel. This is the approach Christ took with Mary Magdalen’s adultery: He did not excuse the sin, but He did not turn away the sinner. He invited her to repentance and forgiveness.
Nevertheless, I feel no such compassion toward those who profit – whether financially or politically – from abortion. As a canonist, I firmly believe in the use of canonical censures to combat this intrinsic evil. Yet these canonical censures should be aimed where they are most deserved. Thus in reflecting upon the carnage wrought by the culture of death over the past thirty years, the Church must strengthen and enforce canonical censures against the so-called “Catholic” politicians, doctors, pregnancy counselors, nurses and lawyers who continue to support and protect an industry dedicated to the willful butchering of children in the womb.
Of course, there is no need to excommunicate the doctors, nurses and other medical staff directly involved in the abortion industry – the Code of Canon Law already provides for their automatic excommunication. As canon 1329, §2 states: “In the case of a latae sententiae penalty attached to an offence, accomplices, even though not mentioned in the law or precept, incur the same penalty if, without their assistance, the crime would not have been committed, and if the penalty is of such a nature as to be able to affect them…” Since the abortion would be impossible without the direct assistance of the medical staff, this makes them direct accomplices to the abortion. So they are automatically excommunicated if they happen to be Catholic. No canonical trial is necessary. The competent ecclesiastical authority need only declare the penalty.
Unfortunately, the canonical situation is a little more complex when it comes to Catholic politicians who support abortion. For their participation in the scandal of abortion is more indirect. The politicians and lawyers draft, legislate and protect laws that permit this evil. Most do not, however, directly participate from the abortion chamber. Therefore the automatic excommunication envisioned by canons 1329 and 1398 would not apply to these lawyers and politicians since, in keeping with the principle of canon 18, “Laws which prescribe a penalty […] are to be interpreted restrictively.”
Nevertheless, a competent Church authority may use other means to impose excommunication upon pro-abortion Catholic politicians. Moreover, there are other penalties the Church may impose. At the very minimum, the Church can and should prohibit pro-abortion lawyers and politicians from receiving Holy Communion. In fact, any bishop may invoke canon 1399 to do so. “Besides the cases prescribed in this or in other laws,” the canon states, “the external violation of divine or canon law can be punished, and with a just penalty, only when the special gravity of the violation requires it and necessity demands that scandals be prevented or repaired.”
Now some canonists will object to my interpretation of this canon, arguing that reception of Holy Communion is a right of Christ’s faithful. However, this right is in no way absolute. As canon 223, §2 states: “Ecclesiastical authority is entitled to regulate, in view of the common good, the exercise of rights which are proper to Christ’s faithful.” One is hard pressed to see how permitting pro-abortion Catholic politicians to go unchallenged contributes to the common good – either of the Church or of society as a whole. Rather, abortion destroys the common good in that it destroys the right to life. This is the right upon which all other rights, as well as the common good, are based.
Moreover, canon 912 states: “Any baptized person who is not forbidden by law may and must be admitted to Holy Communion.” In short, canon law provides an exception for to the right to receive Holy Communion, namely, for those who are forbidden by law. Canon 915 clarifies one such exception as follows: “Those upon whom the penalty of excommunication or interdict has been imposed or declared, and others who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin, are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”
In the end, there is no lack of pertinent canonical legislation granting a competent ecclesiastical authority the right to refuse Holy Communion to Catholic politicians who are obstinately pro-abortion. What the Church needs is the will to enforce this proposed course of action. Undoubtedly, some will denounce such refusal of the sacraments as too severe. Yet what is the alternative? For according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, through abortion “irreparable harm [is] done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society” (2272).
[Since I am already being asked, permission to reproduce in whole is hereby granted by the author, provided proper attribution is given to “Pete Vere, JCL” as the author and http://catholiclight.stblogs.org as the original source.]

The further I get from being a full-time student, the more I’m convinced that higher education has become a scam.
Think of education as an industry like any other. The industry’s leaders have convinced taxpayers to subsidize their industry by telling them the product improves future workers, and thus the economy. Then convince employers that any job paying more than $8 an hour should be filled by people with a certificate from your industry. Then show teenagers (and their parents) that unless they want to work retail, or — horror of horrors — do manual labor or learn an honest trade, they need to spend between $20,000 to $120,000 to get the industry certificate.
These thoughts are occasioned by this article in the New York Times detailing the amenities that universities offer their students today, and how much money is being spent on them. Remember that whether a university is public or private, it’s your tax money being spent because of our middle-class welfare system…er, federal student loans.
I graduated from a slightly above-average state university, whose president was mainly known for getting drunk with frat boys and convincing legislators to dump loads of money into our campus. The most bewildering thing about the whole experience was figuring out that 80% of the other kids had almost no intellectual curiousity. I’m not saying that’s a virtue, and I’m sure there are plenty of saints in heaven who never cracked a book. However, when you’re shelling out $11,000 a year for an “education,” you’d think more people would act like they’re interested.
I have had some outstanding professors, and I greatly benefited from them. By that I mean that I felt wiser after taking their classes. To say that a college degree ought to mean more than a job qualification is dorky or incomprehensible to most people today. But what other real justification is there? If your understanding of God, man, and the universe is unaffected by your classroom time, then that’s at least four irretrivable years of your life gone by, and in reality you’re not even a better worker bee. You’re just a worker bee with a fancy certificate.
[The Academy Girl, whose blog I just discovered, voices related thoughts on her blog.]