Bishop Who Abandoned Schiavo In Critical Condition
Posted on Wednesday, 12 of August , 2009 at 12:09 pm
ST. PETERSBURG, FLA—Bishop Robert Lynch, who leads the Romas Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg, is reported in critical condition following recent surgery.
The Tampa Tribune is reporting that Lynch, 68, is in critical but stable condition following a second surgical procedure at an undisclosed medical facility. He first underwent surgery last week to remove polyps on his colon. Church officials have not disclosed the reason for the second procedure.
Lynch became bishop of the Diocese of St. Petersburg in January 1996.
In his blog at the Diocese website, on July 7, Lynch first spoke about his then impending surgery, saying that nine years ago a small polyp had been “discovered, removed, analyzed and determined to be non-cancerous during a routine colonoscopy procedure”.
He said that on July 6, a large polyp had been discovered during a follow-up colonoscopy and that his gastroenterologist had recommended its removal for testing for colorectal cancer.
Lynch made headlines in 2005 at the time of the dehydration death of brain injured Terri Schindler Schiavo, ordered by Pinellas probate court judge George W. Greer at the behest of her heavily conflicted non-Catholic husband, Michael Schiavo.
Pope John Paul II had said that even people in a vegetative state have a right to food and water and it is morally wrong to deny them a feeding tube
Despite being Terri’s bishop, Lynch never made an appeal for her life and in fact, issued a statement asking the public and Catholic not to castigate Greer for his death position, virtually endorsing Greer’s decision to end Terri’s life.
http://www.dioceseofstpete.org/news.php?NID=9
Lynch’s position was contrary to the official Vatican position. Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace in Rome said in a March 7, 2005, statement, “Without the tube, which is providing life-giving hydration and nutrition, Terri Schiavo will die. But it is not that simple. She will die a horrible and cruel death. She will not simply die; she will have death inflicted upon her over a number of terrible days, even weeks. How can anyone who claims to speak of the promotion and protection of human rights – of human life – remain silent?”Hours after Schiavo’s death was announced , Cardinal Martino called it “murder.”
“When you deprive somebody of food and water, what else is it? Nothing else but murder.”
Bishop Lynch’s position was directly contrary to “the teaching of the Pope” who had written that food and water is not extraordinary support for life and that it cannot morally be withheld from a dying or incapacitated person.
After witnesses say Terri struggled to declare that she wanted to live on March 18, 2005, the day her feeding tube was removed for the last time, Bishop Lynch issued a statement directly at odds with church teaching that food and water is basic sustenance and cannot be withheld by private choice.Just days before Terri died on March 31, 2005, Lynch left the country. However, he left a statement posted on the Diocese website before Easter in which he didn’t seem particularly concerned about the death decree issued and that it was against the official position of the Vatican and the Pope.
“At the end of the day the decision to remove Terri’s artificial feeding tube will be that of her husband, Michael”, Lynch said. “It is he who will give the order, not the courts of certainly the Governor or legislature or the medical personnel surrounding and caring for Terri. In other words, as I have said from the beginning of this sad situation, the decision will be made within a family”.
But not Terri’s family. And Michael Schiavo was a husband in name only.
Bishop Lynch had called for “mediation” between Michael Schiavo and Terri’s parents, saying that Terri’s “plight is a complex and tragic situation”.
In August, 2003, Lynch had issued a statement on the Schiavo case, saying that the Schindlers should be given more time to see if medical treatment could improve her condition. However, that statement was premised on the explicit belief that the withdrawal of food and water could be morally justified according to Catholic teaching in some circumstances. Bishop Lynch tried to justify his theologically unsound statement by referring to a 1989 pastoral letter of the Florida Bishops’ Conference to justify his assertion that food and water could be withdrawn, especially in those cases where the medical experts had concluded that a patient’s condition would not improve over time or if a patient’s death was deemed to be imminent”.
In 2007, on the second anniversary of his sister’s death, Bobby Schindler, wrote to Lynch and after receiving no response, made his letter public, saying “In light of the fact that Bishop Lynch refused my family’s pleas for his help in our attempt to save my sister’s life, I am posting this “open letter to Bishop Robert Lynch” which I sent to him on March 9, 2007, and to which I have, to date, received no response”, Schindler said.
His letter, in part, said:
“Terri’s legacy is one of life and love. Sadly, your legacy will be that of the shepherd that stood silently by as one of his innocent disabled lambs was slowly and needlessly slaughtered by removing her food and water – while you persistently ignored the cries of her family for help (”her family” being the ones who merely wanted to care for her.)“You should not need to be reminded of the many passages of Scripture that condemn the shepherds that “pasture themselves on their sheep,” or Christ’s admonition to St. Peter to “feed My lambs,” etc. As my family and I dedicate the remainder of our lives to saving other innocent lambs targeted by the Death Culture, I beg the Lord to spare us another successor of the apostles who would exhibit the same scandalous inaction and silence by which you remain complicit in my sister’s murder via euthanasia”.
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/2007/032707DenouncesBishop.html 8-12-09
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Category: Disabled, Florida, Health, Religion, Schiavo
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