ROME - The family of Terri Schiavo met with a top cardinal Tuesday to thank him for the Vatican's support as they sought to keep the brain-damaged woman alive.

Schiavo's father, Bob Schindler, said that support from Cardinal Renato Martino and other Vatican officials had helped the family "spiritually" in their unsuccessful battle against a court order to have Schiavo's feeding tube removed.

"Just knowing that he supported us gave us strength," said Schiavo's mother, Mary Schindler, following a 15-minute private audience with Martino.

Schiavo died March 31 in a hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., 13 days after the tube was removed.

The struggle between Schiavo's parents and her husband over whether she would have wanted to be kept alive with the feeding tube riveted Americans and sparked an international debate about end-of-life issues.

Martino heads the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and had urged in February that the feeding tube not be removed.

The Vatican condemned her death as "arbitrarily hastened," and called the removal of her feeding tube a violation of the principles of Christianity and civilization. Martino said Tuesday that Schiavo's death was "an insult to human dignity."

The family attended Pope Benedict XVI's general audience Wednesday, and Martino said the pope was informed of their presence.

In a statement following the meeting, which also included Schiavo's brother and sister, Martino cited an address from Benedict earlier this month in which the pope said that "freedom to kill is not a true freedom but a tyranny that reduces the human being into slavery."

"We can expect from Benedict a very great and convinced defense of life," Martino said.