• Share  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