Jeff Trently's July 30th Article Revisited

Organ & Tissue Donation

While generally very positive about transplants, the Vatican’s 1995 Charter for Health Care Workers offered some vital considerations: "In homoplastic transplants, organs may be taken either from a living donor or from a corpse.

• 86. In the first case the removal is legitimate provided it is a question of organs of which the explant would not constitute a serious and irreparable impairment for the donor....
• 87. In the second case we are no longer concerned with a living person but a corpse.... There must be certainty, however, that it is a corpse, to ensure that the removal of organs does not cause or even hasten death. The removal of organs from a corpse is legitimate when the certain death of the donor has been ascertained....In order that a person be considered a corpse, it is enough that cerebral death of the donor be ascertained....
• 88. Ethically, not all organs can be donated. The brain and the gonads may not be transplanted because they ensure the personal and procreative identity respectively. These are organs which embody the characteristic uniqueness of the person, which medicine is bound to protect."

Subsequent to the Charter, Professor William May (Catholic Bioethics and the Gift of Human Life, Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 6/29/00)was among those who questioned the validity of the so-called "brain death" criteria -or at least how it was being applied. In his 8/29/00 address to the International Congress on Transplants, Pope John Paul II quickly responded: "the criterion adopted in more recent times for ascertaining the fact of death, namely the complete and irreversible cessation of all brain activity, if rigorously applied, does not seem to conflict....Only where such certainty exists, & where informed consent has already been given by the donor or the donor's legitimate representatives, is it morally right to initiate the technical procedures...for the removal of organs for transplant."

A growing number seems to be questioning whether the Holy Father's criteria are truly applied - or even if it is possible to apply them. Among those physicians and others are Fr. David Albert Jones of the Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics and Bishops Fabian Bruskewitz and Robert F. Vasa. They commented on the Pope's address in a 2000 Statement Opposing Brain Death Criteria ("'Brain Death' - Enemy of Life and Truth“; <www.lifestudies.org/jp/noshihantai.htm>), maintaining that

• “None of the shifting sets of 'so-called neurological criterion' for determining death fulfills the Pope's requirement that they be 'rigorously applied' to ascertain 'the complete & irreversible cessation of all brain activity'....
• "For vital organs to be suitable... they must be living organs removed from living human beings....persons condemned to death as 'brain dead' are not 'certainly dead' but, to the contrary, are certainly alive....
• "adherence to the restrictions stipulated by the Pope & the prohibitions imposed by God Himself in the Natural Moral Law precludes the transplantation of unpaired vital organs, an act which causes the death of the 'donor' & violates the fifth commandment of the divine Decalogue, 'Thou shalt not kill' (Deut. 5:17)."

As reported on 9/5/08 by John Weston, "The Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV), the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations (FIAMC), and the Italian National Transplant Centre (CNT) are sponsoring a conference on organ donation for November 6-8 in Rome....several official members of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV), appointments to which are made by the Pope, have written the head of the Academy, Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, demanding that the organ donation-promoting conference be cancelled....The controversy hit the front page of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano this week with an editorial by Professor Lucetta Scaraffia, vice-president of the Italian Association for Science and Life and a member of the Italian National Committee on Bio-Ethics. The editorial noted that a declaration of 'brain death' cannot be considered the end of life in light of new scientific research....Such a determination would prohibit single vitalorgan donation, such as heart transplants, for Catholics or Catholic institutions, since Catholic teaching requires such organ donors to be truly dead....as Professor Scaraffia points out in L'Osservatore Romano, in the Vatican itself 'the certification of brain death is not used'....Beyond the members of the Pontifical Academies, various members of the Catholic hierarchy openly oppose the notion that 'brain death' constitutes true death. Lincoln Nebraska Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, Kansas City- St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn, and Baker Oregon Bishop Robert Vasa have all publicly opposed the 'brain death' definition....many Catholic will be watching the November Vatican conference on organ donation - should it not be cancelled. Of particular importance will be the speech the Pope is set to give to conference participants on the final day of the proceedings" <www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/sep/08090513.html>

An Injustice to Jeff Trently, Perpetrated by the Trenton Diocese? (9/14/08 submission to the Times of Trenton)

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'Trenton Times' Scandal Rehashed (Philadelphia Bulletin, 9/5/08)

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Catholics Must Choose Candidates Who Oppose Abortion (B.C. Courier Times, 9/9/08)

(The original was submitted under the title, "Turning the Spit)

I’m not sure if it’s an exclusively Irish useage, but “spit” can mean a rod holding meat over an open fire. My Dublin born dad liked to quote George Bernard Shaw: “Put an Irishman on the spit and you can always get another Irishman to turn him.” Ireland has a history of less than fraternal relations among some of its people. As among many peoples, selfish expedience has often triumphed over Ireland’s common good.

Support for the sanctity of human life was “on the fire” during the Democratic Convention. More than happy to turn this spit were Irish-American Catholics Robert Casey, Jr. and Patrick Murphy. Senator Casey and Congressman Murphy were an embarrassment with their fawning support for the militantly pro-abortion Barrack Obama.

Dissenting Catholic clergy have cultivated confusion among Catholics on moral issues, similar to what’s displayed by Casey and Murphy. In our next door diocese of Trenton, Father Ronald Cioffi directs the Office of Social Concerns. According to a July 30th piece in the Times of Trenton, Father Cioffi maintains that Catholics may “vote for a person who is pro-choice if you feel you have a moral reason to support the candidate for his stand on other issues.” The Times piece goes on to say that “a Catholic may vote for an abortion rights supporter, such as Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, if that candidate's views on other moral issues outweigh his abortion stand in the voter's conscience.” In response, Bishop John M. Smith quickly condemned the Times piece. If he truly made the reported remarks, Father Cioffi will hopefully be censored for giving scandal.

Last November the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.” They remind us that “We are a nation founded on ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,’ but the right to life itself is not fully protected, especially for unborn children, the most vulnerable members of the American family....In our nation, ‘abortion and euthanasia have become preeminent threats to human dignity because they directly attack life itself, the most fundamental human good and the condition for all others’ (Living the Gospel of Life, no. 5)....direct threats to the sanctity and dignity of human life, such as human cloning and destructive research on human embryos, are also intrinsically evil.”

Aware that some Catholics mistakenly think a candidate’s support for abortion can be cancelled out by positions on other matters, the bishops confront this error, head-on. They reject the “moral equivalence that makes no ethical distinctions between different kinds of issues involving human life and dignity.” They forcefully tell us that “The direct and intentional destruction of innocent human life from the moment of conception until natural death is always wrong and is not just one issue among many. It must always be opposed.”

Simply put, a Catholic (and any person of good will, for that matter) MUST ALWAYS oppose abortion. Hey, that ain’t convenient if I’ve got national ambitions and want money from deep-pocketed groups like NARAL and Planned Parenthood! Such inconvenience has spawned some bizarre comments from politicians, who profess to be Catholic. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi describes herself as an “ardent practicing Catholic.” In an August 24th interview, she claimed the Catholic position on the beginning of life is up for grabs. Every NON-Catholic I know realizes that Pelosi’s “theology” is out of line with Catholic teaching.

Pennsylvania native and Delaware Senator Joe Biden has long defied the teachings of his Church, in regard to the sanctity of human life. Political strategists maintain that Pennsylvania is absolutely crucial for the outcome of this election. They further tell us that the Catholic vote will be absolutely crucial in deciding who comes away with the Keystone electoral votes. If it’s true that Obama chose the hair-plugged Scranton expatriate to appeal to Catholics, we should be profoundly insulted!

While John McCain is certainly not the perfect candidate, his choice of vice president sends a clear message about his readiness to defend the sanctity of human life. Come November, this Irish American Catholic Democrat will enter the voting booth and cast his ballot for John McCain and Sarah Palin. There is no other choice.



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Rev. Ronald Cioffi & the Trenton Diocese