Our parish youth minister, John Barata, recently told me of a conversation he had with a colleague at a soccer conference. Also in the medical field, this colleague had some rather disparaging comments about the Catholic Church because “it’s against organ transplants as a desecration of the human body.”
John countered that his colleague was mistaken, and that many Catholics, including John, are designated as organ donors on their driver’s licenses.
His colleague was adamant that John and these other Catholic organ donors didn’t know the teaching of their own church on this issue.
In fact, the future Pope Benedict had been an organ donor since the 1970s until his election as pope. In a 2008 speech, the Pope lamented the shortage of organs for transplants, but denounced the selling of organs as immoral.
Many priests and religious, including myself, as well as many Catholic laity, are organ donors.
“Ah,” I thought after hearing this story, “another topic for this Misperceptions column in the Easton Journal!”
Read more: http://www.wickedlocal.com/raynham/news/lifestyle/x1310210998/GUEST-COLUMN-The-Catholic-Church-and-organ-transplants#axzz1v5vll9p1
{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}
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