Pope Can't Donate His Holy Organs

Once upon a time, Joseph Ratzinger had an organ donor card. But now that's he's the pope, his organs are too holy to transplant.

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.