Terri Schiavo denied Last Rites

The treatment Terri Schiavo has been receiving from her husband and
the court system is truly unbelieveable.  I have a feeling that there
are a lot of angry people out there.  I read that after the feeding
tube was removed her parents were full of despair.  But gradually
their despair is being replaced by a slow, burning rage.  I don't
blame them.  I can feel the same rage growing within myself, as well.
 
For those of you who aren't familiar with this case, Terri Schiavo is
a disabled woman in Florida who, with the permission of a judge, is
being slowly starved to death by her husband.  He's doing this against
her parents' wishes, even though they have offered to take full
responsibility for her care.
 


STARVATION DAY 5
Terri Schiavo denied Last Rites
Catholic monsignor forbidden to put crumb of holy wafer in dying
woman's mouth
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted: October 19, 2003
2:00 a.m. Eastern


By Sarah Foster
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com 

Saying she was only following court and doctor's orders, an attorney
for Michael Schiavo yesterday would not allow a revered Roman Catholic
priest to administer Holy Communion to brain-disabled Terri
Schindler-Schiavo, who is being slowly starved to death following the
judge-ordered removal of her life-sustaining feeding tube on
Wednesday.

Attorney Deborah Bushnell told Monsignor Thaddeus Malanowski, who has
been Terri's spiritual provider for three years, that ''because of
court order and doctor's orders, you can't put anything in her
mouth,'' not even a morsel of moistened communion wafer.

Malanowski recounted the bizarre incident for WorldNetDaily. ''I felt
that time was of the essence at this point and made a decision that
because she is not going to live much longer, I might not have another
opportunity to give her Holy Communion,'' he said.

As he had done almost every Saturday for over three years, the priest
accompanied Terri's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, to the Hospice
of the Florida Sun Coast in Pinellas Park, Fla, where she has been a
patient since April 2000. Because so little time is left for the
family to be with Terri, her brother Bobby and sister, Suzanne, were
there as well.

Plus there were two police officers in the room and a woman who was
said to be Schiavo's ''representative.''

Malanowski spoke with Bushnell outside the room, explaining that he
wanted to administer the Sacrament of Annointing of the Sick or the
Viaticum, the last communion for a Catholic before death. Bushnell
contacted Schiavo by phone to make certain he would allow it, and he
gave his permission.

Wanting to make it a prayer service, the priest invited the family
into the room to share the sacrament with Terri, but Bushnell demanded
to know what the priest was going to so.

Malanowski explained he was going to give her: ''a small, tiny
particle of the consecrated Host. And I'll moisten my index finger [in
water] to make sure the Host will stick to it and that it will stick
to her tongue.''

Bushnell said he couldn't do that, but suggested he ''take the Host,
touch her lips with it, and you consume it.''

Malanowski protested, ''I'm not here for that. I am here to bring her
communion, not me. I went to communion this morning. This is communion
for her.''

Contacted by telephone, the priest of the local parish told Bushnell
there was an ''alternative'' called ''spiritual communion'' for people
who can't receive communion-- ''She receives the Lord in her heart.''

''I told attorney Bushnell, I've been doing that for over three
years,'' Malanowski exclaimed. ''Every Saturday I give her spiritual
communion, and I want her to receive communion in the mouth. She
hasn't received communion for 13 or 14 years. She's dying. She's on
her deathbed, and with dying people-- whether it is a male or female
Catholic-- I'm obligated to take care of their religious and spiritual
needs when they're dying. They get absolution, Holy Communion, and
Annointing of the Sick.''

Malanowski argued the matter with the parish priest, but realized he
was ''following the party line about spiritual communion.''

''I told him I'd been doing that for two-and-a-half years-- and he
said, 'Well, the doctors say you cannot put anything in her mouth.'''

Malanowski said he would do it, ''because she has the constitutional
right to follow her religious beliefs, she has the right to receive
communion and I have the obligation as a priest to give her communion.
This will be perhaps the last time in her life on earth that she
receives communion.''

But the priest didn't agree. ''I sensed that, because he was saying,
'Otherwise you can't do it. If the court-order says so and the doctors
say so, you can't do it.'''

Unwilling to argue points of theology and constitutional issues on the
phone, Malanowski tried Bushnell again, but she was adamant. ''She
wouldn't let me do it.''

There were two police officers, and he asked them, ''What if I go in
there now and give her communion?'' And they said, ''We will deny you
access to her. You will not be able to put it in her mouth.''

At that point Bobby and Suzanne, said, ''Father, let's go.'' 

And they did. While Bushnell was talking with the priest, they had had
a prayer service and the ''spiritual communion''-- but many Catholics
do not regard that as the same as communion with a consecrated host.

Outside the hospice a scheduled press conference was about to begin,
and Malanowski found himself in front of the TV cameras.

''I told them [the media] the whole story, that she was denied her
religious privileges and I was denied the right to take care of her
religious needs,'' he said. ''I told them, that the attorney had some
suggestion about me touching Terri's lips with the wafer, and then I
was supposed to consume it. What does she know about Catholic ritual
or rites?''

As WorldNetDaily reported, the Schindlers had been fighting their
son-in-law for 10 years over the lack of care and therapy Schiavo as
her guardian provided for their daughter, who suffered massive brain
damage when she collapsed at her home 13 years ago under mysterious
circumstances at the age of 26.

The ongoing dispute escalated five years ago when Schiavo petitioned
the court for permission to end his wife's life by removing her
feeding tube, insisting she is in a ''persistent vegetative state''
and had told him years before she would not want to be maintained ''by
tubes'' and ''artificial means'' Although Terri breathes on her own
and maintains her own blood pressure, she requires a simple tube into
her abdomen to her stomach for nourishment and hydration.

The Schindlers fought tenaciously to keep their daughter and the case
alive in the courts, but they have been basically blocked at every
turn in particular by probate judge George Greer, of the Pinellas
County Circuit Court, who has had charge of the case almost from the
beginning. When the seven-member Florida Supreme Court in August
turned down a petition to review the case, the way was clear for
Schiavo to starve his wife to death.

On Sept. 17, Greer scheduled Oct. 15 as the day Terri's feeding tube
would be removed. At the same time, in separate rulings, he denied any
rehabilitation for the disabled woman or a chance to be spoon-fed.

Information on Terri's fight for life is posted on the family's
website.
http://www.terrisfight.org/


Previous stories: 

Jeb Bush 'fails' Terri 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35152

Abuse report filed for Terri Schiavo 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35149

Desperate parents plead to Jeb Bush 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35145

Lawyers: Bush can step in for Terri 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35120

Starvation begins for Terri Schiavo 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35095

Husband protests video showing alert Terri 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35085

Terri Schiavo wants to live 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35077

No intervention for Schiavo 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35076

Joni Eareckson Tada joins vigil for Terri Schiavo 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35055

Hearing today on woman scheduled to starve 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35015

Prayer vigil for Terri Schiavo 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35006

Bush steps in for Schindler-Schiavo 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34974

Florida AG intervenes in Schiavo lawsuit 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34924

Order signed for starvation of disabled woman 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34663

Disabled woman wins reprieve 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34555

Another 9-11 date with death 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34416

Federal judge considers Schiavo case 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34399

Federal Court grants emergency hearing in Schiavo case 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34353

Attorney: Jeb Bush letter only a 'good first step' 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34321

Gov. Bush's plea for Schindler-Schiavo rejected 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34307

Jeb Bush intervenes for Schindler-Schiavo 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34275

Legal setbacks clear way for Schiavo starvation 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34252

Schindler-Schiavo on 'death row' 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34229

Husband bars priest from brain-damaged wife 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34175

Brain-damaged woman hospitalized 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34120

Fight for life bombshell: Terri trying to talk 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33877

Petition drive launched for Terri Schiavo 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33876

Commentary 

'Murder is legal if we say so' 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34935


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

Sarah Foster is a staff reporter for WorldNetDaily.

The article's URL is:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35156