Goodbye, Terri. May your memory live on forever.

Terri Schiavo has died today. She is with God. She is in a place where she can never be tortured. She is in a place where she will never feel upset or sad. She is in a place where she will never feel pain or fear.

At this point, we must pray for her family and supporters. They put up a valiant fight. They have been subjected to the kind of misery which no family should ever go through. Make no mistake: Terri's death was by court order and nothing else. Had God decided that her time to enter eternity was at hand, she would have died even WITH the feeding tube in place. It is not for human beings to cause or hasten death under any circumstances.

We must pray for those who caused Terri to die as well as those who agree with what was done. Like Terri, like all of us, they are children of God, created in God's Holy Image. We must pray for them to have a conversion of heart and to find the peace that only our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, can bring. We must pray that they will ALL convert and dedicate their lives to doing good (good according to God's Holy Laws, not what society calls "good"). Most of all, we must forgive them. Remember the Our Father prayer, given to us by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ: "...And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us" (emphasis mine). With those words, we are asking God to base our own salvation on the way we forgive others.

The devil has NOT won this battle. Terri is with God. We should NOT allow the devil to win under any circumstances. While we must fight the Culture of Death in every place that it rears its ugly head (abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, contraception, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning, etc.), we must do so while strictly abiding by God's Ten Commandments. Anything less delights the devil. We must also remind the devil of his future: being crushed under the heel of our Most Blessed Mother, the Immaculate and Ever Virgin Mary. The devil WILL ultimately lose the war. NEVER let the devil win any battles along the way.

While most of us have never met Terri in person or talked to her, we must never forget her. While a court ordered her demise, her memory must live on. We must work to convert hearts and minds to minimize this from happening to others. We must urge our elected representatives to work to change the laws that allowed this to happen. We must urge our elected representatives to impose checks and balances on the judiciary beyond the few that currently exist.

Through Terri's nearly twelve days of court-ordered dehydration and starvation, we have learned that this happens to disabled people all the time. We have learned about viewpoints. We have seen how some bioethicists feel about this issue. We have seen how people react to certain wording on polls. We have heard how some feel this is "compassionate." For some reason, we were not allowed to see photographs of the alleged "compassionate" process of starvation and dehydration in Terri's case. (The reason given was "privacy." But the very individual who talked about privacy also discussed Terri's medical details with the press.) In Terri's memory, we must work to urge greater respect for the value of human life, especially the most vulnerable. As Jesus said, "Whatsoever you do, to the least of my people, that you do unto Me." The most vulnerable in our society are clearly the least of our Lord's people. Denying them food and water is denying Almighty God food and water.

This situation has implications for everyone alive today or in the future. Forgiveness is mandatory. While the motivation should never be ill will, there are many allegations in this case. Terri was never able to personally articulate her wishes. The alligations will likely never be argued in court or before Congress (despite Congressional subpoenas). However, they should certainly be discussed in the blogosphere and hopefully in the major media. In some cases, media information about this case is available online. Laws should be researched. Ideas should be hashed out. Remember what the blogs did when some documents surfaced containing allegations about President Bush's military service. That previous statement only means to discuss the capabilities of blogs. It does NOT mean to imply that any of the allegations in Terri Schiavo's tragedy are true or even provable. They should simply be discussed and hashed out for years to come. We also need to figure out specific reasons for the Schindlers' loss in order to help anyone else facing a similar situation in the future.

Terri, please watch over all of us. You will be missed. May God bless all of us, but most especially the Schindler family and Terri's close friends.