ND 88 Pro-Lifer Suffers Heart Attack, Diagnosed with Stress Disorder Thanks to Prosecution

LifeSiteNews ^ | 6/24/10 | Kathleen Gilbert

[wagglebee]

SOUTH BEND, Indiana, June 24, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Thanks to the strain of being subjected to criminal prosecution on charges of trespassing, one of the 88 peaceful pro-life protesters who was arrested at the University of Notre Dame's campus in May of last year recently suffered a heart attack. According to Dr. Therese Beste's doctor, she continues to suffer from post-traumatic stress related to the prosecuation.

The doctor's diagnosis has been submitted to the pro-lifers' defense lawyer as members of the group, known as the "Notre Dame 88," continue to face prosecution and a possible penalty of up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.

Beste, a Michigan resident, told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) that she travelled to Indiana in May 2009 because she was "horrified" to learn that Notre Dame, "Our Blessed Mother's University," would be honoring "the most pro-abortion politician in our nation."  The university had invited Obama to give the commencement address and receive an honorary law degree.

Beste says she is a devotee of the Virgin Mary, to whose intercession Roman Catholics attribute the end of ritual child sacrifice among Native Americans, after Mary appeared in a vision to Mexican peasant Juan Diego 500 years ago. Beste said, "Our Lady would be horrified to see a proponent of more child sacrifice walking on her ground. "

"The affront to Our Lady, to life and the graphic example of the lack of good, solid Catholic teaching in Our Catholic schools came together for me at Notre Dame and I could no longer stand by and watch," she said. Beste said she joined a group lead by Monica Miller of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society.

When pro-life and pro-Obama protesters converged on Notre Dame's campus on commencement day, witnesses say only pro-lifers - recognizable for carrying pro-life imagery, rosaries, crosses, and pictures of Mary - were arrested. Since then, University president Fr. John Jenkins has stubbornly refused to request leniency for the ND 88, who are now under the power of the county prosecutor. Pro-life leaders and Notre Dame alumni have urged Jenkins to reach out to the pro-lifers, as his influence on their behalf would likely have great weight in convincing the prosecutor to drop the charges.

While she said the day of her arrest was "joyous and grace-filled," Beste relates that she later experienced "nights and nights of great anxiety and worry, horrific dreams of being shot by a firing squad and falling into a pit." 

"I feared going to jail for a year and what this would do to my kids," she said. "That was an unexpected development for me: I thought we would get a fine and a ticket. I never expected to be so persecuted for standing for Catholic beliefs on a Catholic campus by my fellow Catholics."

Eventually Beste suffered a heart attack and underwent open-heart surgery, which she called "the most painful thing that I have ever experienced."

A note obtained by LSN from Dr. Jeffrey Bossenberger, a physician, confirmed that Beste's stress over the events connected to her prosecution has led to worsened health.

"I feel she is suffering from post traumatic stress from [the prosecution] and obvious depression as well as her other medical problems," he wrote. "I highly recommend, at this point, that ... this case be put on hold until she is in further stable condition, both physically and mentally, or this case be pushed for dismissal."

Beste said that she continues to pray that Notre Dame "become a true Catholic School again and to put morality and Truth ahead of prestige and worldly glory, or it will cease to exist, cursed by the Lord for not bearing fruit."

Click here for Notre Dame leaders' contact information.

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Notre Dame Anti-Military, Pro-Gay Protesters Let Go; Pro-Lifers Still Face Fines, Imprisonment
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/apr/10042208.html

Notre Dame Pres Jenkins: Visit to Notre Dame was Good for Obama
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jun/10060311.html

[wagglebee]

It is a travesty that this is still going on.

[wagglebee]

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[shibumi]

So many years of my life.

So many memories.

All dead to me now.

[muawiyah]

Fr. John Jenkins appears to believe Catholic Priests are best served by appearing to be hard-asses.

Pope should talk to this boy about his attitude.

[Gene Eric]

>> University president Fr. John Jenkins has stubbornly refused to request leniency for the ND 88

John Jenkins is a scumbag!

[wagglebee]

I’ve talked to a bunch of Notre Dame grads in the past year who feel the same way.

[blueyon]

Prayers for them

[shibumi]

I was brought up steeped in the tradition. Went to my first football game at 8 years old. Attended the university twice (Three year time out for the VietNam war) and graduated in ‘75.

That parchment used to hang on my wall proudly -

- no more.

[Cicero]

Why aren’t the bishops still on Fr. Jenkins’ case for this?

If nothing else, he is earning himself a place in hell. He deserves some counseling by his superiors in the Church as to where this course of behavior is leading him.

[wagglebee]

He needs to be silenced and probably excommunicated.

[jiminycricket000]

"Since then, University president Fr. John Jenkins has stubbornly refused to request leniency for the ND 88, ----- While she said the day of her arrest was "joyous and grace-filled," Beste relates that she later experienced "nights and nights of great anxiety and worry, horrific dreams of being shot by a firing squad and falling into a pit." "I feared going to jail for a year and what this would do to my kids," she said. "That was an unexpected development for me:"

Persecution of Catholics in America should not be an "unexpected development" anymore. Abortion is the new-age American sacramental right, so we can expect more and more persecution if we fight against it. And persecution of good, faithful Catholics from within the Church, by the likes of the liberal Fr. Jenkins, has been occurring since the 2nd Vatican Council. Evil has spread everywhere on earth, casting its web even into the Church itself.

As an aside, I just read that the office of an archbishop (someplace in Europe, perhaps Denmark) was recently stormed by police who took his computer and cell phone, along with the cell phones of nine other bishops who were present at the time in a meeting. I know, child abuse is criminal and disgusting to the enth degree, but they will use this situation to justify persecution of the entire Church. The great, overwhelming majority of priests and bishops are saintly men dedicated to serving God. And that is why they'll continue to be persecuted, as it's always been, not because of the sins of a tiny minority of homosexual deviates amongst them who like boys.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

If Jenkins is not disciplined by the Vatican and does not do public penance for this, something is wrong.

[Salvation]

Absolutely a terrible travesty.

[shibumi]

<

(Thanks to Salamander for the graphic.)

[shibumi]

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[cpforlife.org]

This is infuriating.

Really the only way I can deal w the likes of Fr. John Jenkins is in the knowledge that while he may not get justice in this life he most certainly will in the next.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

It is immoral.
It is immoral for a Catholic priest in active ministry, a Catholic educator, and, indeed, a president of a leading Catholic university, to cooperate formally in the evil of prosecuting Catholic pro-life protesters for the ridiculous and insane issue and misdemeanor of trespassing on the Notre Dame campus to voice their support for the unborn whom Obama has abandoned. To tie up the courts and waste funds on legal fees and court costs which otherwise could be feeding children or going to scholarships for Catholic schools is immoral. To have a president of a Catholic university involved in such immorality and to persist obstinately in that without intervention or canonical penalties imposed by the Vatican is a disgrace.
Are there no men left in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church?
This liberal fruitcake should be gone already for enabling a pro-abortion politician.