I actually think in many cases when the records were digitized Priests were told they did not need to handle these requests anymore. That XYZ Heritage centre would handle requests. And you can imagine that those books can't be used over and over without destroying them. I am always amused when a Rosie O'Donnell or someone is doing Who Do You Think You Are and they pull out the actual books. Christina > Attending to the spiritual needs of their parishioners is an > enormous job for most Irish priests, leaving little time to answer > genealogy requests. Catholic bishops decide whether or not their > dioceses' films should be made generally available. (They're not > public documents.) There are a couple of bishops who have held out.