Catholic relics and papal remains
When Vatican officials announced recently that Pope Benedict XVI's
2005 election rendered his organ donor card null and void, they offered
no specific reason for the change. The curious history of papal body
parts, however, offers some clues. "A decision of a personal character
made when [Benedict] was a private citizen is no longer operative now
that he is the head of the Catholic Church," said the Vatican's chief
spokesman, Federico Lombardi. He also called the idea of transplanting
the organs of a man who is almost 84 "a little surreal."
Lombardi
dismissed reports that the church preserves a dead pope's body in order
to supply holy relics in case he's declared a saint. But Archbishop
Zygmunt Zimowski, head of the Vatican's health care office, told an
Italian newspaper that one reason to keep papal remains intact would be
for "possible future veneration."
Since Benedict's five
predecessors are under formal consideration for sainthood, it's not a
huge stretch to see Benedict as a possible saint-in-waiting. And where
there's a saint, there are often bodily relics to be venerated by the
faithful. Generally speaking—at least in modern times—the church prefers
that the relics all be in one place.
