Rome, Italy -- A Vatican cardinal denounced the death Thursday of Terri Schiavo, saying removing the feeding tube that was keeping her alive was "an attack against God."
Portuguese Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, head of the Vatican's office for sainthood, told reporters that "an attack against life is an attack against God, who is the author of life."
The cardinal, speaking shortly after the brain-damaged woman died in Florida, said the ailing Pope John Paul II "teaches us not only with his suffering, but also with his teaching the great respect for life. Life is the most precious thing we have."
John Paul, 84, has been put on a feeding tube of his own as Parkinson's disease and other ailments have left him increasingly frail.
The cardinal's comments reflected other recent remarks by Vatican prelates since Schiavo's feeding tube was disconnected with a judge's approval March 18. She suffered severe brain damage after a heart attack 15 years ago.
"The prolonged interruption in her feeding ... is shaping up as an unjust death sentence to an innocent, in one of the most inhumane and cruel forms — that of death from hunger and thirst," Renato Martino, who heads the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, told Vatican Radio earlier in the day, before her death was announced.
"The dutiful and unavoidable respect for a human being should impose that ... what would practically and without euphemism be murder — to which it is impossible to stand by inert without becoming an accomplice — be avoided," he said.
Schiavo's husband said Schiavo told him she would not want to be kept alive in a vegetative state, and he insisted he was carrying out her wishes by having the tube pulled. The woman's parents said she needed treatment and another opportunity for life.
Martino had previously appealed for Schiavo to remain on life support.