Vatican City, May 17, 2005 / 22:00 pm
The parents of Terri Schiavo, Bob and Mary Schindler, thanked the Holy See for its support in the fight to save the life of their daughter, who died after her husband had her feeding tube removed.
The Schindlers met with Cardinal Renato Martino, the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, at his Vatican office and expressed to him their gratitude for the Holy See’s efforts to help save their daughter.
They also informed the cardinal of a new foundation in honor of their daughter, the Association in Defense of Life. Cardinal Martino encouraged them in their work with the new foundation and he reaffirmed the Holy See’s rejection of “the decision that led to the killing of a woman by one of the most inhumane and cruel means, that of hunger and thirst.”
Cardinal Martino also cited the words of Pope Benedict XVI, as he took possession of the basilica of St. John Lateran: "The freedom to kill is not real freedom but a tyranny that reduces man to slavery."