COMING LATE 2024 / EARLY 2025
About the Book
Organ donation is not only allowed by the Catholic Church, it is encouraged. So why are so many of the Catholic faithful so confused?
Life Always Wins: Catholicism, Organ Donation, and a Culture of Life will take readers on a journey about this life-saving topic–explored through the lens of our Catholic faith. By navigating readers through the complexities of the catechism and the teachings of the church surrounding organ and tissue donation, Life Always Wins aims to inspire our faithful to commit even more deeply to the church’s culture of life and to leave a lasting impact through this last act of charity.
Catholics Can Address
Our National Health Crisis
Most people know the Catholic Church’s answer to the question of when life begins, but a great number of the Catholic faithful have a limited understanding of the Church’s teachings on the end-of-life, particularly as they relate to the gifts we can all leave behind to save others through organ donation.
There is a health crisis in America. Twenty people are dying each day waiting for a life-saving transplant. The over 80 million Catholic faithful in the U.S. have the collective potential to help solve our organ shortage by eliminating the wait for the over 100,000 people currently on the national transplant waiting list.
Misunderstandings of church doctrine should not stand in any Catholic’s way of choosing to give the gift of life to save another.
Main Topics Addressed
•Pro-Life & our culture of life connection What is bodily functional Integrity?
•Pope Pius VII’s three principles regarding medical procedures and research
•Blessed John Paul II’s statements on the criteria for determining human death (brain death & cardiac death)
•Respect for One’s Body – Vessel
•The principle of Fraternal Charity or Love Burial rites – Being buried “whole”
•When does the soul and the body separate? •Exploring research and writings from the •National Catholic Bioethics Center
•Donation & Transplant stories of Clergy and Lay People
•Why Popes can’t donate their organs
•Myths and facts about organ and tissue donation
•What is the difference between living and deceased donation
Chapters
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Introduction
The Culture of Life
The Crisis
The Catechism & the Papacy
The Confusion
The Crusade
The Conversation
The Church
The Clergy
The Controversies
About the Authors
Dr. Cynthia & Frank Grobmeier
Dr. Cyndi and Frank Grobmeier met at the Catholic university where Cyndi serves as a Professor of Communication to this day. Married for over 25 years, they faced their greatest challenge to their Catholic faith when they lost their youngest daughter, Maddie, who at the tender age of 17 had made the selfless decision to save others by giving the gift of life through organ donation. Inspired by his daughter’s servant heart and bravery, Frank, a journalist and media professional, formed an organ donation nonprofit where he serves as the Executive Director.
Recent Headlines
Pope Testimonies for Organ Donation
Pope Benedict XVI
“The act of love, which is expressed with the gift of one’s own vital organs, is a genuine testament of charity that knows how to look beyond death so that life always wins.”
Saint Pope John Paul II
“There is a need to instill in people’s hearts, especially in the hearts of the young, a genuine and deep appreciation of the need for brotherly love, a love that can find expression in the decision to become an organ donor.”
Pope Francis
“Organ donation is a testimony of love for our neighbor.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church
Organ Donation after death is a noble and meritorious act and is to be encouraged as an expression of fenerous solidarity.”