VATICAN CITY - Comparing the case to Jesus Christ's Way of the Cross, the Vatican on Wednesday denounced a US court decision to let a severely brain-damaged woman die as a new painful step in her ordeal.
The statement, in the Vatican's Osservatore Romano daily, came after a federal appeals court turned down early Wednesday an emergency request by the parents of Terri Schiavo to have her feeding tube reinserted.
"A new painful 'station' of the personal calvary of Terri Schiavo was written today" by the court, the daily wrote Wednesday.
On Easter Friday, Christians take part in the Way of the Cross which commemorates the steps or "stations" of the suffering and death of Jesus.
"Unfortunately, until now Terri Schiavo has met several torturers on her painful journey: from those who first decided that she should die to the judges who signed her sentence," the Osservatore stated. The newspaper had compared Schiavo's "agony" to the "agony of humanity" in an article Monday.
Doctors estimate Schiavo's time of survival since her feeding tube was disconnected Friday at two weeks. She has been in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years since heart failure caused severe brain damage.
Michael Schiavo, her husband, has said she should be allowed to die and that she had expressed such a wish in the past. Her parents have for seven years fought efforts to remove her from life support, insisting she can get better.
Doctors have repeatedly said in court that Schiavo has virtually no chance of recovery.
The Vatican daily said the court decision went against the views of a large section of US public opinion as well as that of President George W. Bush, who expressed his disappointment at the court's ruling.
"In the meantime, unaware of the fuss surrounding her case, Terri is dying, in silence," the newspaper wrote.
03/23/2005 16:39 GMT