Can the Pope be an organ donor?
The question was raised this week after Vatican Radio revealed the contents of a letter written by the Pope’s private secretary, Msgr George Gaenswein, stating that Pope Benedict’s 1970s issued organ donor card had become “de facto invalid with Cardinal Ratzinger’s election to the papacy”.
In 1999, the then Cardinal Ratzinger revealed he always carried an organ donor card with him, expressing his approval for organ donation which he called “an act of love”. I always felt the same and I too became an organ donor.
An unnamed German doctor reportedly used the fact the Pope possessed an organ donor card as a way of promoting the practice.
This prompted Msgr Gaenswein to write to the doctor, saying: “It’s true that the Pope owns an organ donor card... but contrary to public opinion, the card issued back in the 1970s became de facto invalid with Cardinal Ratzinger’s election to the papacy.”
This was no sooner said than various experts were offering to explain this particular invalidity. Church teaching argues that a pope’s body belongs to the entire church and therefore he must be buried intact, said some.
Others argued if papal organs were donated, then they might become relics, de facto “parked” in other bodies, if the pope were eventually made a saint.
Contacted last night to explain this apparently obscure area of church teaching, senior Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi dismissed the notion of relics and intact burial. “The point is that the Pope offered to become a donor more than 40 years ago... having become Pope, his situation has changed – he is no longer any ordinary private citizen...."
“There are things that you can do as a normal, private person that do not apply when you are a sort of public official or spiritual leader like the Pope”, he said.
“On top of that, I am not sure how much interest there would be in the organs of a 90-year-old man... as for talk of relics and things like that, frankly that just seems a silly joke to me.”
I am not nearly that old but my organs may resemble those of someone 90 plus!
Do you think Pope Benedict should be allowed to donate his organs after he passes away? What are your thoughts on organ donation? Are you a registered organ donor? Why or why not?
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Comments (6)
If someone needed the organs of a 90 year old man (which does seem unlikely), I don't see a major issue with it.
What a non-issue. It is clear that this Pope is a good one if the only thing against him is that he might not give up his 90 year old organs.
No one ever asks liberal public figures if they are going to withhold their organs...
@monobeam@xanga - He has given his permission for the organs to be donated. The point is, does the church have the authority to deny those organs to other people, even above the Pope's own discretion? It would create a significant contradiction in terms of Catholic teaching and practice.
When we become Catholic we become followers of Jesus. We are given a way to follow, and it goes through the Church. The Church has a right to make demands of us.
People are body and soul. Organ donation helps the body, and it's good, but the body is not the all. Remember when the woman poured precious perfume on the feet of Jesus. Who was it who complained? Judas, the betrayer, complained, saying that the money could have been used to help the poor. In other words, worldly concerns are more important than spiritual ones to Judas.
Our modern era gives all importance to the physical things, and to this extent we are incomplete. We are half the people we should be.
The spokesman is right; being elected pope changes a great many things. For example, this is why a man elected pope chooses a new name since it reflects the new reality that he is no longer his own person any more but rather he gives his entire self over to the Church and to Christ.
I guess if you're going to make up a position, you have to make up a bunch of rules to go along with it.