My dear friend Mark Pickup wrote a stunning blog posting that I must share with you. Of course, when you read the excerpt, I know you will want to visit his blog and read it all, but let me whet your appetite.
On Friday, October 26th, Mark told of an anonymous letter he received. Part of his blog relates the following:
The anonymous priest "corrected me by saying said that 'it is not a given thing that hydration etc. is given to a person inside an R.C. run institution.' Father X said he knows of a Canadian Catholic hospital where a nun was denied any hydration because she was dying; he informed me that the sister’s “lips were cracked, etc. It was appalling.”
Mark questions the veracity of this letter because, after all, it was sent without a name, and he has invited the priest to e-mail him privately and make it clear that he is in fact sharing a legitimate situation.
I hope the priest does this, but in the meantime I have to tell you that there have been far too many such situations in Catholic hospitals right here in America for me to be shocked by the anonymous letter. Just this past week the infamous Dominican, Father Kevin O'Rourke, told an audience, according to this news report:
Eating is a very human experience. We eat with people we love. We eat with people we try to share life with.
The report goes on:
That's not the same, he said, as supplying nutrition and hydration so a person can physiologically function. And research shows, he said, that a person in a persistent vegetative state does not suffer from starvation in the way someone deprived of food and water does.
Say what?
It is a tragedy that this man parades around the country telling people why it is legitimate to starve human beings like Terri Schiavo to death. Yet it continues to occur, and has been well documented in my book, "Saving Those Damned Catholics," which is why I would suggest to you that the anonymous Canadian priest is not lying but rather fears the repercussions should he come out into the public and make his statements.
God save us from the culture of death! Pray for misguided bioethicists like Father O'Rourke and for the victims of his philosophy.