Daniel Amiri (whom I don't know) recently wrote a most apt description of free will, an element which separates us from animals. "We are not animals. We do not have to be trained to obey," he wrote. The Servant of God, Pope John Paul II, addressed the International Congress on Life-Sustaining Treatments and Vegetative State Mar. 20, 2004 and began by asserting his concern that "vegetative" has become entren-ched in our vocabulary: "A man, even if seriously ill or disabled in the exercise of his highest functions, is and always will be a man, and he will never become a 'vegetable' or an 'animal.'" The Holy Father proclaimed these words one year before his entrance into Eternal Life while he was most seriously ill and disabled in the exercise of his highest functions ... and teaching us some of his most profound lessons. May God bless you all through Our Lady.
David Spellman
Notre Dame parent
Logansport, Ind.
Nov. 29
