Monday, March 27, 2006

First two sentences of an open letter to Michael Schiavo published Saturday by Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life:

A year ago this week, I stood by the bedside of the woman you married and promised to love in good times and bad, in sickness and health. She was enduring a very bad time, because she hadn't been given food or drink in nearly two weeks.

Yeah, right. Other than that, she was fine.

Pavone -- who, as I've pointed out a number of times, gave invocations at both a rally for religious conservatives organized by the GOP before the 2004 convention and a subsequent "Christian Inaugural Eve Gala" that was also addressed by Karl Rove -- goes on to call Michael Schiavo a murderer, over and over again:

... after Terri died, I called her death a killing, and I called you a murderer because you knew -- as we all did -- that ceasing to feed Terri would kill her.... Some have demanded that I apologize to you for calling you a murderer. Not only will I not apologize, I will repeat it again. Your decision to have Terri dehydrated to death was a decision to kill her. It doesn't matter if Judge Greer said it was legal. No judge, no court, no power on earth can legitimize what you did. It makes no difference if what you did was legal in the eyes of men; it was murder in the eyes of God and of millions of your fellow Americans and countless more around the world. You are the one who owes all of us an apology.

Your actions offend us. Not only have you killed Terri and deeply wounded her family, but you have disgraced our nation, betrayed the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and undermined the principles that hold us together as a civilized society.


He's saying that to most of us here in America -- he's saying most of us are potential murderers -- because, as an ABC News poll points out, we overwhelmingly agree that the right thing was done in this case, across the spectrum:

Sixty-four percent in this ABC News poll support last year's decision to remove Schiavo's feeding tube. It was an almost identical 63 percent at the time.

... Democrats, Republicans and independents are equally likely to say removing Schiavo's feeding tube was the right thing to do. Conservatives are less likely than liberals and moderates to support removal of the tube, while 53 percent of conservatives think it was right -- that compares with seven in 10 liberals and moderates.

Sizable majorities of evangelical white Protestants and white Catholics -- 61 percent and 73 percent, respectively -- call the removal of Schiavo's tube the right thing to do, despite criticisms of the step by evangelical and Catholic leaders....


Pavone, of course, is the guy who told Fox News this about Schiavo's condition just before she died:

She was very responsive--closing her eyes when I said, “Let’s pray together, Terri,” opening them up after the prayer. Smiling, returning the kiss of her father. Turning her eyes to me when I spoke to her. In many other ways, as well, responsive.

Even today, although, of course, with the effects of the dehydration, her response was much less. Nevertheless, her eyes were open, her eyes were moving, and as I prayed with her, her eyes were shifting over toward my direction--even until the last moments that I was with her.


It's a sin to tell a lie, Father.

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