The final days

I have not said much here on Terri Schiavo. Many others have done much better than I could have. But we have been praying. My boys have asked every morning if there is anything new. A few times Mrs. Curley and I have heard them say an extra Rosary after we have shuffled them off to bed. More rosaries are certainly needed. Mrs. Curley has been very upset at the lack of humanity our society seems to have come to. My 5 year old, who has some awareness of all this due to family discussions, asked why we don't just go down and rescue her (and kill the bad guys). Mr. Luse asks a similar question of Mr. Bush: here.

Jeff at El Camino Real says here that "our 'system' in the United States is damaged beyond repair. Yes, beyond repair. What a bloody tangled mess."

Over at Caelum et Terra, one wonders: Nevertheless, the boy who cried wolf was eventually correct. I don't think that the almost certainly impending death of Terri Schiavo means that the government is going to start rounding up Christians or implementing a program of euthanasia for the disabled. But I am concerned that we have taken a decisive step in that direction, a step big enough that historians might one day see it as a useful marker, like the burning of the Reichstag, of a decisive change. We are witnessing the government-ordered starvation of an innocent person.

Indeed will this be a marker? Popular opinion is with Michael Schiavo. It is the opinion of a society which has lost its way, which has no hope.

We have been letting people be starved to death for years. However this is one of the few cases, where there has been someone to speak for the victim of our modern "compassion and justice". Our outrage can not die when Terri Schiavo dies, as she most likely will later this week.

Once more battle lines have been drawn, we cannot let the army disband as it usually does. However, we must remember that prayer, prayer, and more prayer must precede and accompany actions.

Some of us do live in hope - the hope of the Resurrection which we celebrate tomorrow. We must somehow find a way to bring this hope to the rest of society. John Paul in his suffering is the best witnes - but eyes are closed. We must pray all the harder. The temptation is to act, and act and act - but only God can change hearts - our actions can not. We must pray and fast and realize these times are cause for heroic prayer.

From the small holding in Bethune ...

Oremus pro invicem!