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Donna

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A young woman in Florida is about to be euthenasia-ized by the will of her husband (who has also forbade a priest from giving her the last sacraments) while Florida Bishops have not intervened on her behalf.

For the love of Christ crucified, please take 2 minutes to help save a life.

www.terrisfight.org

why isn't it working? (why isn't the above clickable?)

Edited by Donna
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littleflower+JMJ

use the http:// and the button so it can hyperlink....

my prayers are added....

May the BLessed MOther intercede for her....

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http://www.terrisfight.org

jmj, she's named for St. Therese of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face.

Recommended: 24 Glory Be's, each followed by 'St. Therese of the Child Jesus, pray for us!' each day Terri's life is on the line. (I also add "of the Holy Face".)

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MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH

Husband bars priest from brain-damaged wife

Catholic monsignor regularly ministered to Terri Schindler-Schiavo--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5:00 p.mPosted: August 19, 2003

. Eastern

By Sarah Foster

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

The husband of brain-disabled Terri Schindler-Schiavo – whose continued existence is at the heart of a highly charged legal battle – has barred a revered Roman Catholic priest from visiting his wife.

As WorldNetDaily reported, Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have been locked in a decade-long legal struggle with their son-in-law over care and custody of their daughter, who suffered brain damage when she collapsed at her home 13 years ago under unexplained circumstances.

A contentious dispute over Terri's lack of care became a major euthanasia battle five years ago when Michael Schiavo, 39, obtained permission from a court to have a feeding tube removed so his wife would starve to death. Terri breathes on her own and maintains her own blood pressure but requires the tube for sustenance. An appeals court upheld the ruling, declaring Terri to be in a vegetative state though her parents present evidence she is responsive. Now they are trying to persuade the Florida Supreme Court to hear a final appeal.

Yesterday morning, Monsignor Thaddeus Malanowski of the Diocese of St. Petersburg learned Shindler-Schiavo's husband has barred him from visiting because of concerns about his "integrity."

Schiavo's actions took family members by surprise because Malanowski had visited Terri many times at the hospice where she resides. Terri was admitted to Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater, Fla., Wednesday night to address an emergency medical crisis.

Malanowski served as a chaplain in the U.S. Army for 30 years, retiring with the rank of brigadier general. He left the service with an unblemished record. Despite being retired, he has been called on four times by Bishop Robert Lynch to run the parishes of priests forced to leave because of child molestation charges.

'No visitors'

The priest found out he was barred when he dropped by the hospital yesterday morning to see Terri. No reason was given by the nurse, except that his name was not on the list of persons Schiavo allowed to see his wife.

Malanowski told WorldNetDaily he had visited Terri Friday evening at the hospital, assuring nurses he was on a court-approved visitors list at the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast.

The priest said he gave Terri the Sacraments of Absolution and Healing as he had on many occasions. Before leaving, he asked the nurse at the reception desk to note his visit in Terri's file. He visited Terri again the next morning, Saturday, with her parents, part of an established family ritual.

Every Saturday, for nearly three years, Malanowski has accompanied the Schindlers to lead in religious observances.

"I say some novena prayers for her from St. Jude Thaddeus and St. Theresa of the Child Jesus -- her patron saint," Malanowski said. "Her parents share with her in the Sacrament of Healing. They respond with the prayers."

He said there was nothing extraordinary about his two visits, which makes the banishment inexplicable.

Malanowski noted a "No Visitors" sign now hangs on Terri's door, and he learned not even the Catholic chaplains at the hospital are allowed to see her.

"I thought every Catholic person has the right to the sacrament of the Church by a priest or Catholic chaplain," he said.

Asked if he had ever run into anything comparable, Malanowski said, "Never."

"I was in the Army for 30 years, and never, never in my life have I had an experience like this," he declared. "We were very ecumenical, tolerated each other, shared with other ministers and rabbis. I never came across anything like this."

Schiavo explains

No explanation came until yesterday afternoon when Deborah Bushnell, the court-appointed attorney for the guardianship, faxed a brief letter to the Schindler's attorney Patricia Anderson, citing complaints by Schiavo about the monsignor.

"Mike Schiavo has asked me to inform you that Father Melanowski [sic] is no longer on the authorized list to visit Teri [sic] at the nursing home in the company of family members," Bushnell wrote.

She said Schiavo claimed to have reports from the staff that Malanowski had "attempted to visit Teri [sic] at the hospital on his own" yesterday.

The letter continued: "He told the hospital staff that he 'has a court order' to visit, and that he is the 'court-appointed' chaplain."

It concluded, "Please let your clients and Father Melanowski know that Father Melanowski is not authorized to visit Teri [sic] at the hospital, the nursing home, or in any other venue."

Bushnell told WND Schiavo's action was prompted by requests of the staff, and she insisted Malanowski had misrepresented himself, as indicated in the letter. He conceded the priest was on the list of visitors Schiavo had approved, but maintained it applied only to visits at the hospice.

Bushnell argued a hospital is a different type of venue, because they're doing "medical procedures, and lots of visitors can interrupt those."

"Mike has, at the request of the medical personnel, restricted the visitors at the hospital to immediate family because of the medical procedures that are going on," she said. "He didn't want to interfere with that."

That includes barring a priest from visiting a communicant?

Bushnell claimed Malanowski tried to get in "by saying he had a court order to visit, which he does not, and describing himself as a court-appointed chaplain, which he isn't."

"They told him, sorry, family members only, and later they found him in the room with Terri and they had to escort him out," said Bushnell. "That kind of behavior in a volatile situation is not the kind of thing that we really need."

Bushnell said the ban was extended to other venues because if Malanowski "would misrepresent himself in order to gain access to visit Terri, Mike felt that it was inappropriate for him, at least at this point, to be on the visitors list to visit her anywhere."

She added that could change, "but at this point Mike is concerned about Father Malanowski's integrity and his willingness to misrepresent himself in order to gain access to her room. He felt that that's not the kind of person that he wanted visiting Terri or that he felt comfortable visiting Terri."

Conflicting stories

Malinowski emphatically denies he slipped into Terri's room and had to be escorted out.

"That's not true!" he exclaimed. "[The nurse] told me to sit down on a chair near the area where they work. I was about 30 or 40 feet away. When she told me I wasn't on the list, I got up and left. I did not go back. I did not go into Terri's room."

The monsignor insisted he had been very calm and gentle with the nurse, "and she was very calm and gentle with me. She said, 'There's nothing I can do. We can only go by the names on the list, and your name is not on the list.'"

Attorney Anderson said the directive barring the monsignor shocked the Schindler family.

"Frankly, I am outraged that Michael Schiavo has barred Monsignor Malanowski from visiting Terri and giving her communion as he has been doing for the last three years," Anderson said.

Noting the priest's stellar record, she declared, "There is not one bit of artifice in him. He is the kindest man you could meet. He visits Terri on his own time, just because he wants to do it, and he's been going there like clockwork for three years."

Anderson is particularly concerned about the impact this could have on Terri.

"Terri looked forward to his visits," she said.

Anderson said Malanowski filed an affidavit "describing how one St. Patrick's Day he visited Terri and told her he was going to sing 'When Irish Eyes are Smiling' in Polish. And she started laughing. She got the humor, she understood. Michael insists that she is so brain-damaged that she can't recognize people or anything -- but she loves Monsignor."

As Anderson's sees it, Schiavo is trying to make Terri's environment as "barren as possible, and as free from stimulation."

"I don't think there is any justification for removing spiritual comfort from her in what may be her last days," she said. "It's beyond comprehension."

Anderson said she will file an emergency motion to restore Malanowski's visitation rights and do away with the visitors list.

"Michael has proven he has misused his guardianship rights," she said.

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Eh, I tried to edit the topic sentence; somewhere else I'd read Terri is being denied the last sacraments, but I don't see that here.

Anyway, sorry. I would've edited as : Husband forbids life/priest's visits.

http://www.terrisfight.org

HINT.

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Jake Huether

. "Her parents share with her in the Sacrament of Healing.

What is the Sacrament of "Healing"? I've never heard that one...

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What is the Sacrament of "Healing"? I've never heard that one...

It's referring to the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.

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Jake Huether

Then if the priest has already administered the Sacrament, why is there such a beef about him not being able to see her again? I'm kinda confused. I mean, I know we should do everything in our power, and the Priest too, to stop them from murdering her. But I thought there was a stink about him not seeing her to administer the Last Sacrament (which is the Sacrament of the sick). And if he's already done it (according to the article), then what's the deal?

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Jake,

I think he was planning on continuing to administer absolution and maybe annointing of the sick. That's what I understood the article to say, along with praying, scripture etc.

peace...

edited to add:

Annointing of the sick is not the Last Sacrement, or the so-called Last Rites. Annointing of the Sick is done anytime one is thought to be in serious illness, but can recover. I think....

Edited by PedroX
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MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH

Legal setbacks clear way

for Schiavo starvation

Date to be set for removal of feeding tube from brain-damaged woman

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted: August 25, 2003

1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Sarah Foster

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

The Florida Supreme Court's refusal Friday to review the case of Terri Schindler-Schiavo was the climax of a week-and-a-half of legal setbacks for the brain-damaged woman and her family, and clears the way for Terri's husband and legal guardian Michael Schiavo, 39, to remove his wife's feeding tube, causing her to die by starvation and dehydration.

Probate court Judge George Greer has scheduled a hearing for Sept. 11 to set a date for discontinuation of Terri's feeding.

At an emergency hearing Thursday, Greer postponed deciding whether to allow a revered Roman Catholic priest at Terri's bedside to administer the sacraments.

As reported by WorldNetDaily, Terri was transferred early Aug. 14 from Woodside Hospice facility in Pinellas Park to Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater, due to an emergency medical crisis. Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, were not informed of the move and learned of it only when Mary Schindler made a routine, mid-afternoon phone call to the hospice to inquire about the status of her daughter.

Under Schiavo's orders, the family was not kept informed of their daughter's medical condition or prognosis for recovery. Furthermore, on Monday they learned Schiavo had barred Monsignor Thaddeus Malanowski, of the Diocese of St. Petersburg, from visiting Terri at the hospital, hospice or "other venue." The monsignor has been Terri's chaplain, visiting her with her parents every Saturday for nearly three years.

Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler of Gulf Port, Fla., have been locked in a decade-long legal battle with their son-in-law over the care and custody of their daughter, who suffered massive brain damage when she collapsed at her home 13 years ago under unexplained circumstances, at the age of 26.

The bitter dispute over Terri's lack of care became a major euthanasia battle five years ago when Schiavo petitioned the court for permission to have his wife's feeding tube removed, claiming she is in a persistent vegetative state – or PVS – and would not want to be kept alive "artificially." Although Terri breathes on her own and maintains her own blood pressure, she requires a tube for nourishment and hydration. The Schindlers and a number of doctors and therapists believe she could be rehabilitated, but the courts have consistently sided with Schiavo and his lawyer, right-to-die advocate George Felos.

Upon learning of Schiavo's action towards Malanowski, the Schindlers' attorney, Patricia Anderson, filed a petition Tuesday with the probate court for an emergency motion asking that the monsignor be reinstated to the court-approved list of people Schiavo said could visit his wife. She further asked the court to uphold a 1996 order requiring Schiavo to make medical information promptly available to Terri's parents, and made a formal request to have Schiavo replaced with a court-appointed temporary guardian.

At Thursday's hearing, Deborah Bushnell, attorney for the guardianship, insisted the Schindlers had been kept informed about their daughter's medical state. She said Michael had phoned her at 9 a.m. to tell her Terri was coughing up blood and had been transferred to Morton Plant. Bushnell said she advised him to contact the hospice and order them to inform Mary Schindler whenever she made her daily phone call for information about her daughter.

She said Felos gave "more detailed information" to Anderson later that afternoon to pass on to the Schindlers, and that he updated her next day and late Tuesday in statements sent by fax. There was no communication in the intervening four days because there had been no "significant change" in Terri's condition, she said.

On Wednesday, the day following Anderson's filing of her emergency motion, Terri was transferred back to the hospice and was reportedly out of danger.

Anderson pointed out that the Schindlers had learned details of Terri's situation only after she had personally phoned Felos "pleading for information." She also said her clients still did not have any definitive information as to why their daughter was hospitalized or what happened to her.

Greer ordered Bushnell to provide the hospital's discharge summary to the parents. As of Saturday this had not been done.

As for the ban on Malanowski, Bushnell denied he was Terri's priest and declared his presence was essentially unnecessary. The main gripe against him was that he had visited the brain-damaged woman at the hospital alone Thursday night, without her parents as Schiavo required.

"It is particularly inappropriate for him to visit [Terri] unaccompanied," she said. "Any spiritual comfort provided by Father Melanowski [sic] was provided for the Schindlers' benefit, not Terri's. Mike will arrange for a Hospice chaplain who is not a witness in the prior proceedings to visit Terri if spiritual comfort is required."

Malanowski was present and prepared to respond to allegations from Schiavo's attorneys that he had "misrepresented" himself in order to gain access to Terri, but Greer refused to allow him to testify.

Bushnell took the opportunity of the hearing to detail several actions by the Schindlers and their legal team which she viewed as violations of rules set down by Schiavo and the court. She said Malanowski was not the only approved visitor to be bumped from the visitors list. Tom Brodersen, Anderson's paralegal and office manager, who is a member of the Illinois bar, was removed last year.

"[brodersen] was told he could no longer visit because he visited Terri unaccompanied, and sat in her room for hours taking notes, apparently playing music and otherwise attempting to elicit responses from Terri," she said.

Bushnell also complained of Bob Schindler working with Terri to try and get her to talk, recording his efforts on audiotape. "It also recently came to light through an Affidavit signed by Sara Green Mele that audio tapes were recorded in November 2002 of Terri interacting with Robert Schindler," she said.

WorldNetDaily reported on Schindler's efforts and speech pathologist Mele's evaluation that Terri is an excellent candidate for rehabilitation if given speech, physical and occupation therapy.

Bushnell said, according to a March 24, 2000, court order by Judge Greer, the Schindlers were "prohibited from photographing, taking videos, or taking any other like pictorial representations of the Ward, or causing same to be taken by other persons, without prior approval of this court."

In her view, the audio recording violated "the spirit of this Order," and audio taping should be prohibited in the future along making with photos and videotapes of Terri.

No decision was reached by the judge, who insisted there was no emergency and the lawyers could get together this week to discuss their next move.

Contacted for comment, Bob Schindler described the hearing as a "complete fiasco" and expressed bitterness about learning of his daughter's medical condition almost by accident.

"She went in on an emergency basis, so the first thing they should have done was to contact us," he said. "Now Mary calls the hospice almost every day in the afternoon. She hadn't called Wednesday, but she did phone Thursday at 3 o'clock. But what if she hadn't? If she hadn't called they'd probably never told us."

Malanowski explained to WorldNetDaily why he felt it was necessary for him to visit Terri at the hospital without her parents, saying it was the first time in over two-and-a-half years he had done so.

He said he first learned of Terri's situation Thursday evening, when Schindler, who had just returned from visiting her at the hospital, called to let him know.

"The first thought that came to my mind was it's an emergency," he exclaimed. "She's going to the hospital, Bob told me she had pneumonia, was bleeding internally, and had an infection in the urinary tract. To me that was an emergency, and we always respond to a hospital call right away. We go and administer the sacraments. We don't want the people to die without the sacraments. I would consider that an emergency, so I went. It was the first time I ever saw her without the parents. I'm only five blocks away from the hospital, and I thought it was important that I would go even though it was 10:15 at night to provide these sacraments for Terri."

Said Malanowski, "We automatically do it. When we get a call from a hospital we don't say, "Is she ill? Is she dying?" We just go, and that's what I did. That was Thursday night. Then Saturday at noon I met Mary and Bob and we went together. Nobody questioned us, and that's when we said our novena prayers to St. Theresa for Terry.

Pat Anderson told WorldNetDaily that at the hearing she could hardly believe she was in the United States.

"I felt like I was in another country when the judge expressed reluctance, an inability really, to recognize that cutting Terri off from the sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church was an emergency and a violation of her First Amendment rights," she exclaimed. "Now this judge is Protestant and perhaps can't be counted on to understand the significance of the sacraments that Monsignor Malanowski is administering to Terri. But Terri could have a health crisis tonight or tomorrow night, and there is no Catholic priest to give her the sacraments," she added.

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IcePrincessKRS

Annointing of the sick is not the Last Sacrement, or the so-called Last Rites.  Annointing of the Sick is done anytime one is thought to be in serious illness, but can recover.  I think....

Actually, Last Rites and Annointing of the sick are both terms for the same Sacrament, Extreme Unction. It may be administered any time the ill person is believed to be near death, and so it is possible to receive it more than once.

The anointing of the sick is often administered near the time of death, to bring spiritual and even physical strength during an illness. It is most likely one of the last sacraments one will receive. A sacrament is an outward sign established by Jesus Christ to confer inward grace. In more basic terms, it is a rite that is performed to convey God’s grace to the recipient, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The sacrament’s name has changed over time. It was once called extreme unction, which means "the last anointing," and has been referred to as part of the "last rites." The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls it "the anointing of the sick," (CCC 1511).

http://www.catholic.com/library/Anointing_...of_the_Sick.asp

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