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| Kidney transplant recipient Ed Garavelli and kidney donor Father Val Handwerker, recovering from their Nov. 8 surgeries, are back at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, where they join in prayer with Tobia Fuller, a member of the church's Pastoral Council. |
By the time parishioners, parents, students and staff at Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception got Father Val's e-mail that Tuesday morning, Nov. 8, he was already in surgery.
"Peace in the Lord!" read the e-mail from Rev. Valentine Handwerker, a 63-year-old Catholic priest who lives his life as if every day should end with an exclamation point.
"I want to go over something with you. Often times I speak about stewardship. As you know, stewardship first and foremost is gratitude to God for the gifts and blessings entrusted to us. Out of that gratitude to God, then, we are called as stewards to use these gifts and blessings not only for ourselves but also for the good of others."
In 2009, Father Val became Monsignor Val, an honor bestowed on him by the Pope at the request of Bishop J. Terry Steib of Memphis. The title is from the French mon seigneur, meaning "my lord."
Handwerker, the son of Kathleen and Vallie Handwerker of North Memphis, is one of the community's leading advocates for social justice, and still prefers the title Father Val.
"Throughout my life God has blessed me with excellent health. In ministry I am often with persons who face serious illness. Being with them only reinforces the blessings of health which I have received. Over time I have been drawn to use my health also for the benefit of others."
On Dec. 16, 2009, Father Val sat at his kitchen table and read a newspaper article about 13 patients who received new kidneys from donors they didn't know. It was the world's largest kidney exchange. "It's not like I'm doing anything courageous," one of the donors told The Associated Press. "If I don't donate, who will?"
As the article noted, there are about 90,000 people on a national waiting list for a kidney transplant.
About 17,000 kidney transplants are performed each year -- about 5,000 from living donors.
"I need to do this," Father Val thought as he read the article. Over the next several months, he thought about it and prayed about it. Earlier this year, he told his doctor he wanted to donate one of his kidneys to someone -- anyone -- who needed it.
"Out of prayer and discernment I have decided to be a living kidney donor. I have gone over that decision with my spiritual director. I have also sought the permission to be a living kidney donor from Bishop Steib. I am very grateful for his support throughout this process, and that recently Bishop Steib celebrated with me the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick."
The sacrament, also known as Extreme Unction or Last Rites, is no longer administered only to the dying, but also to those who are gravely ill or about to undergo a serious operation. As it says in James 5:14-15, "Is any man sick among you? Let him bring in the priests of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man."
On Sunday Oct. 30, Bishop Steib administered the sacrament to Father Val in a private ceremony with a few others at the Midtown Cathedral. On Sunday Nov. 6, Father Val administered the sacrament to the man who would receive one of his kidneys.
". . . In the beginning of this process I knew that I wanted to donate a kidney and was very open to placing this donation on the National Kidney Registry for my kidney to be given to an undesignated recipient in need of a transplant. During the testing process, however, I realized that a Cathedral parishioner with a serious kidney illness might need a kidney donor."
About a dozen years ago, around the time Father Val became rector of the Cathedral, Ed Garavelli, then 50 years old, was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease, which usually leads to kidney failure.
Ed's kidney function began to decline gradually, then rapidly. About two years ago, Ed was placed on the kidney transplant waiting list, and was told it might take three to five years to get one.
"I was pretty sure I didn't have five years," Ed said.
". . . I knew that Ed already had a prospective kidney donor. I later learned that, during the medical tests, the prospective kidney donor found out that he was not a suitable candidate to donate a kidney. At the same time I learned how serious Ed's kidney failure is. Presently his kidneys are functioning only at 11%. As soon as I received word that I passed all the medical tests and am able to be a living kidney donor, I went to Ed and Jerri. Before that they had no idea that I was interested in being a living kidney donor. I then asked Ed if I could be his kidney donor."
Ed, the founder of Pinnacle Press, couldn't bring himself to ask anyone he knew to be a living donor, but a few offered to be tested. Ed's wife, Jerri, wasn't a match for his type B-positive blood. Her sister was, but then she developed kidney stones. High blood pressure eliminated two close friends.
About a week after the fourth potential donor fell through, Father Val called. He wanted to come to the house and talk.
"I thought he was going to ask us for a donation," Jerri said. "Instead he was bringing us one."
Ed, who like Father Val is 63, shook his head. "What can you say about a gift like that?"
"This morning, Tuesday, November 8th, Ed and I shall undergo surgery during which one of my kidneys will be transplanted to his body. It was only four days ago that the surgeons and specialists of the Transplant Institute at Methodist University Hospital gave their final approval for Ed and me to proceed with this surgery."
Surgeons removed Father Val's healthy left kidney and placed it in the right side of Ed's body. Each procedure took about two hours.
"Did it work?" Father Val asked Jerri as he was being wheeled to his room after surgery.
It did, Jerri assured him. "He was so delighted," she said. "He was like a little kid who had just given someone his favorite toy."
Ed jokes that he knows the recovery process won't be easy.
"Especially for me," Ed said. "If Father Val wants a favor, it's not like I can turn him down. I have this feeling I'll be washing a priest's car every week for the rest of my life."
"My surgeon, Dr. James Eason, thinks that I should be totally recovered from the surgery within two months. Hopefully I look forward to returning to the parish on a part-time basis in a few days."
After the surgeries, Ed bet Father Val an Italian dinner that he would be the first to return to Mass at the Cathedral.
They tied.
Last Sunday, when Ed and Jerri arrived for 10 a.m. Mass, Father Val was there as well.
"I'm grateful to be celebrating Mass with you this morning," the priest said. "I'm awed by what it means to be one body of Christ linked together."
He was speaking to the entire congregation but he was looking at Ed and Jerri.
". . . We thank all those who have made this possible, and we are very appreciative for the expertise and care by the medical staff of the Transplant Institute at Methodist University Hospital."
Parishioners are calling Father Val's gift a living homily.
"For many of us it brought forth the question, 'What am I giving back to others of our time, talents and treasures?'" said Dr. Gene Mangiante, a parishioner and a professor of surgery at the UT Health Science Center.
Steib said he considers "Monsignor Val's act of kindness to be heroic and life-saving."
Father Val sees his donation as an act of gratitude.
"Everything we have is a gift from God," he said, "a gift to share with others."
"I also want to thank Father Kris Rusin (and other 'visiting' priests), the Cathedral staff and other parishioners for 'covering' for me during my absence. I ask that you pray that Ed's body accepts his new kidney. Please pray for Ed's complete recovery, and mine."
While Father Val and Ed were in surgery, students at IC Cathedral School were praying the rosary. They had known that one teacher's husband was receiving a kidney, but they hadn't known who the donor was until that day.
"You could have heard a pin drop when we told them," said IC principal Karen Gephart. "This is such a great lesson in compassion."
Earlier in the school year, Jerri Garavelli was talking to her fifth-graders about her husband's pending transplant. They were curious about kidneys so she showed them a chart of the human body and explained how kidneys work.
One child asked why people have two kidneys.
"So we can give one away," another child replied.
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