Remembering Terri
Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life issued an open letter to Michael Schiavo to commemorate the anniversary of Terri's death by dehydration. As one who sat by her bedside and watched the suffering she endured, Fr. Pavone calls it as he sees it, and as he knows God sees it, whether or not Michael Schiavo won the legal battle to kill his wife.
We need to remember Pastor Niemoller's comment (paraphrased) "In Germany they first came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me -- and by that time no one was left to speak up."
In other words, first it was legal to kill the unborn baby, and I didn't speak up because I was already born. Then it was legal to kill a disabled woman who wasn't dying of a terminal illness, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't disabled. What will happen next? Killing mentally retarded people because they don't "produce?" Killing the old because they're a "burden?" If we can't stand up for the basic dignity of human life because it is given by God and made in His image, then at the very least, can't we see the danger to ourselves? We won't be young forever.