Priest donates kidney to parishioner

Published: 2006-07-10

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (CNS) -- The scenario could give a Hallmark card commercial a run for its money: A parish priest donates a kidney to a parishioner who is his friend's wife and the mother of four. "This is the gift of life for me," said Patricia "Pat" Sanchez, who July 6 received a kidney from her pastor at Sacred Heart Church, Father Ken Ramon-Landry. "I am happy for me, for (my husband), and I am happy for my family," she said." Neither of us wants notoriety," Father Ramon-Landry said. "Both of us think it is a worthy cause to raise awareness to the fact that within some of our bodies we carry life for others -- even us men -- by offering a kidney, a lung. Perhaps this is why God gave us two to see if we would share and take seriously what his Son did for us ... laying down our lives freely." Father Ramon-Landry and Sanchez were often listed as instructors on the workshop agenda for continuing education in the Diocese of Biloxi, but the priest's strongest connection to the Sanchez family was with Pat Sanchez's husband, Rafael. Both men work closely in Hispanic ministry in the diocese.

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