Chaput to Celebrate Mass Honoring Terri Schiavo

Glenn Beck will be also be featured as part of 10th anniversary of Schiavo's death.

Archbishop Charles Chaput. Photo | Jeff Fusco

Archbishop Charles Chaput. Photo | Jeff Fusco

Terri Schiavo died 10 years ago today, but the political battle over her death still rages on — and this year, Philadelphia is at the heart of the battle. Archbishop Charles Chaput will hold a Mass this afternoon celebrating Schiavo’s life, after which a “Life & Hope Award Gala” dinner will be held at the Union League featuring broadcaster/firebrand Glenn Beck as the keynote speaker.

ABC reminds us what the case was about.

Terri Schindler Schiavo collapsed at home in the early morning hours of Feb. 25, 1990, according to the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Foundation started by her parents, Robert and Mary Schindler. She was ultimately diagnosed with hypoxic encephalopathy, a brain injury resulting from oxygen starvation.

Her husband Michael Schiavo asked for her feeding tube to be removed once doctors declared her in a persistent vegetative state, touching off a decade-long legal battle with her parents that went all the way to the Supreme Court.

The court eventually sided with Schiavo’s husband and the young woman’s feeding tube was removed. She died about two weeks after the tube was removed on March 31, 2005.

The case remains potent for conservative activists, who believe Schiavo should’ve been kept alive. The Mass is scheduled for 5 p.m. at the Chapel of the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter & Paul.