The phone call came this morning, a friend letting us know that Terri Schiavo had died.
She did not die during Holy Week, like many of us had expected, but clung to life tenaciously into what the Roman Church calls the Octave of Easter, and what the Byzantine Church calls Bright Week, a time of celebration when it is forbidden to fast, even on Friday. Terri Schiavo, who entered into the suffering of Christ during Holy Week, began her entry into His Resurrection during Bright Week.
So, while sharing in the grief of her family, we must also share in their hope, not only for Terri’s soul, but for the good that can come of her suffering, as the suffering of what in the Russian Church is called a Passion-Bearer, an innocent person unjustly slain. Perhaps one good effect may lie in prolifers finally waking up to the reality of what
this country has become, and waking up to the generally weak response of most of the politicians and religious leaders in whom they had put their trust.
Oddly, at the end it was not Catholic bishops or Evangelical leaders who came to Florida to plead her defense, but the Rev. Jesse Jackson, God bless him. Perhaps this will lead to the Rev. Jackson rethinking things and returning to the antiabortion stance he once held. And perhaps prolifers will question the package deal they have been sold by the Republican Right, which I have always suspected views us as useful idiots.
And perhaps more Americans will wake up to what has become a tyranny of the judiciary, this rule of black-robed ideologues with their mandates and fiats.
But one may be forgiven if one is sceptical about the odds of America waking up at all. If there is unrelieved grieving it should be for this nation, which seems intent on recreating the dystopian science fictions worlds I read about in the novels of my youth. The killing of Theresa Marie Schindler Schiavo has certainly planted a dark seed toward that end.
May God have mercy on us all.
—Daniel Nichols
Let’s not forget Ralph Nader and Nat Hentoff among the liberals who ended up on the right side of this.
Yes, and many congressional Democrats. And remember, the whole pack of them, “prolife” Republicans included,were content to go home for Easter vacation until public outcry drove them back to DC on Palm Sunday.
To give them the benefit of the doubt, I don’t think they knew what to do. What they did, they didn’t do very well, but they tried. They don’t have to face things like this too often.
We’ve learned how to put pressure on them. Maybe the next time our pressure and their actions will be more successful.
I’ve read a couple of commentaries from lawyers who say that all the judges after Greer were severely restricted in what they could legally do. One commentor in particular (sorry, can’t remember where I read it) said that the Schindlers were out-lawyered in the very beginning, resulting in Greer arriving at a “finding of fact” which in legal terms become the facts. And Greer’s “fact” was what Felos said it was. So the cause was all but lost from the beginning, as far as the judicial system was concerned. And I can’t be too surprised that no executive was willing to defy the courts. But sooner or later something like that is going to have to happen for the judicial tyranny to end.
I do still have hope for the country, although not optimism. One thing I see differently from Daniel is in his statement “what this country has become.” I don’t think we’ve fully “become” that evil thing yet–I definitely have the “culture war” view of what’s going on, and although as I say I’m not that optimistic it ain’t over yet. I mean, as I said in my post last weekend, at least we are having this fight, which wouldn’t even happen in most “advanced” countries.
i don’t think things are too far gone for the u.s. and let us all pray for the Pope.
Maclin- maybe we’ll eventually have to have it out here on the blog on the question of America, and our very different views on its role in history. Not that we would convince one another of anything- years of arguing haven’t done that- but the readers may find it interesting.
Maybe so. I’ve never had a lot of inclination to pursue it, not just because we wouldn’t change each other’s mind but because it’s in the nature of the question that there’s really no way to resolve it. I mean, it’s partly an argument over whether the glass is half full or half empty. And there’s no USA-less world that we can look at to see how things would have been different without it. As much as anything, I’d be interested in hearing from readers.
Since I’m sure we are all more concerned with the pope right now, I think I’ll wait a bit and then start a topic on it.
In passing, though: I got cable tv about a year ago and I must say it has made me more pessimistic. Never mind evaluating the past–it’s hard to see how any society can climb out of a hole this deep.
Maybe it is an academic argument at this point. Or maybe the argument is whether the glass is shattered. Anyway, we have had this amiable disagreement for what? twenty years now? I doubt we’ll resolve it in this lifetime, and in eternity it will be irrelevant, no doubt.
And yes, the drama in Rome has us all absorbed. Poignant timing, isn’t it? The eve of Mercy Sunday…