The John Paul II and Terri Schiavo connection

An excellent, excellent essay from the American Thinker

An excerpt:

But what was impossible to know before the events of the past few days is that this world historical figure might well be paired with Terri, heretofore relatively unknown, on the recto and verso sides of a single holy medal, as it were–the one the latest victim, the other the most prominent opponent–of what John Paul II himself has called the “culture of death.” Stranger things have happened. The Roman matron Vibia Perpetua and the slave woman Felicitas never met until they were martyred in the circus at Carthage, but there they became “Perpetua and Felicity,” declaimed together countless times in the Roman canon that is still celebrated in the Catholic church as the first Eucharistic Prayer. We pray for John Paul II and for Terri; but I doubt if they need our prayers.
It is we who need their intervention.

What brings these two together is the problem of justice, an issue to which John Paul II devoted much of his pontificate. He told us he would do so from the outset. In the very first of his many encyclicals, Redemptor hominis (1979), he said: “The redemption of the world–this tremendous mystery of love in which creation is renewed–is, at its deepest root, the fullness of justice in a human heart–the heart of the first-born Son–in order that it may become justice in the hearts of many human beings” [sec. 9]. Virtually the last individual case of justice to which he turned his mind was that of Terri Schiavo. We are by this time all too familiar with her sad demise. But let us turn to her case once more, this time looking at her as the reverse side of John Paul II’s emblem.

Please feel free to leave a comment under the posting, or sign my Spiritbook (guestbook). You can chat with me on the tag board to the right!