Iowa City priest donates kidney to a parishioner

Published: 2004-05-24

IOWA CITY, Iowa (CNS) -- For centuries, Catholic priests have provided their sick and suffering parishioners with spiritual support, counseling and even health care. But Father Walter Helms, pastor of St. Thomas More Parish in Iowa City, recently took pastoral support a step further when he donated an organ to a parishioner who suffers from kidney disease. Steve Cook, a 54-year-old Hills resident who received one of the priest's kidneys in March, called Father Helms a saint for stepping forward after a previous donor could not go through with her kidney donation. "I was one of those people who started to blame God for all of my troubles. It was wrong, but that's what I thought," Cook told The Catholic Messenger, newspaper of the Davenport Diocese. "And then someone threw me a curve." Cook has suffered from glomerulonephritis for much of his life. This disease prevents his kidneys from filtering extra fluids and wastes from his blood, according to the National Kidney Foundation's Web site at: www.kidney.org.

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