Terri dies in Florida, “family’s faith remains strong” Fr. Pavone says

Mar 30, 2005 / 22:00 pm

Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman that became the center of a bitter right to life battle, died Thursday morning, 13 days after a court halted her tube feeding, a spokesman for her parents informed today.

She died hours after her parents endured their last legal setback when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene.

The Supreme Court’s ruling Wednesday night came as Terri Schiavo, 41, began her 13th day without food and water. Earlier in the day, a federal appeals court also refused to intervene in the case.

Few minutes before Terri was pronounced dead, her brother, Bobby Schindler, described her saying that "It's not a pretty sight, I can tell you that." 

Rev. Frank Pavone, President of Priests for Life, who accompanied him, said Terri Schiavo's face was shrunken and her eyes were oscillating from side to side.

Fr. Pavone and Bobby where allowed until 10 minutes before she died, but were ordered out of the room by the legal guardian, Michael Schiavo.

Regarding Terri's family, Fr. Pavone stated that "their faith in God remains consistent and strong, they are absolutely convinced that God loves Terri more than they do." 

Fr. Pavone also said "all the prayers of the Church were offered for her. She felt the solidarity of all of you, all those prayers, all that sacrifice were conveyed to her by caresses to her ears."

He strongly criticized Michael's "heartless cruelty," for not allowing her immediate family to spend the last minutes with her.

"What we grieve here is not a dead, this is a killing, we grieve that our nation has allowed such an atrocity," Fr. Pavone concluded.