Terri Schiavo's Brother Rebukes Bishop Lynch

TAMPA, Mar. 27 /Christian Newswire/ -- As the second anniversary of Terri Schiavo's death from dehydration on March 31, 2005, approaches, her brother, Bobby Schindler is releasing a letter written to Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg, Florida.

The text of the letter is available online. Bobby Schindler also makes the following comments:

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 an "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.

On March 13, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI reasserted that Catholic politicians have a "grave responsibility" to defend all innocent human life, and a "non negotiable" duty to oppose the practices of abortion and euthanasia.

If the Church teaches that such a grave responsibility rests on elected officials who are here today and gone tomorrow, and who hold mere temporal power, what of the successors of the apostles - our bishops - who hold the greatest spiritual authority on earth?

Pope Benedict XVI clearly stated, "all Catholics have a duty to uphold the Church's pro-life teachings, but the responsibility is especially incumbent on those in positions of power." (emphasis mine)

Pope Benedict further stated, "Bishops are bound to reaffirm constantly these values (the pro-life teaching of the Church) as part of their responsibility to the flock entrusted to them." As Catholic dissenters continue to flaunt their pro-death agenda, and as laws are promoted, especially in the economically progressive world, for the legalization of euthanasia, the bishops have been charged by the Holy See "with the task of monitoring whether elected officials in their local churches shouldn't be receiving communion because of a violation of the church's pro-life teachings."

Perhaps certain bishops should not consider themselves above such scrutiny as well. As my letter states, "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."

Bobby Schindler now works for The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation, Center for Health Care Ethics in St. Petersburg, Florida, an organization dedicated to promoting the Culture of Life, embracing the true meaning of compassion by opposing the practice of euthanasia.