The Vatican stops Pope from donating his organs
Although he looks like a real-life Darth Sidious, Pope Benedict (used to) have a soft spot in his heart for organ donations - always carrying his donation card with him as an "act of love".
But now the Vatican has put its foot down and said that the papal body parts can't be donated to save lives after the Pope dies as his organs should not become relics in lowly human bodies. Ouch.
The whole row started when a doctor in Germany had been using the fact that the pope possessed an organ donors' card from a medical association to advocate the practice. The Vatican asked him to stop but he did not.
To settle the matter, the pope's secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, sent a letter to the doctor and the missive was reported in the German program of Vatican Radio.
"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," Vatican Radio quoted from the letter.
In 1999, six years before he was elected to the papacy, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger disclosed that he always carried an organ donor's card with him and encouraged the practice as "an act of love."
Vatican officials say that after a pope dies, his body belongs to the entire Church and must be buried intact. Furthermore, if papal organs were donated, they would become relics in other bodies if he were eventually made a saint.
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/04/us-pope-organs-idUSTRE7131RL20110204
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dooder
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i wouldnt want his organs
- 1 year ago
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dooder
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KingGuiseppe
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He is the Pope he should do what he wants. What is going on?
- 1 year ago
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KingGuiseppe
