How utterly sad. If the Vatican does not believe in the posthumous baptisms as being legit, then why would they care if their records were extracted by the LDS church? My family was all Catholic, up until my parents (we are LDS). Does this mean I cannot research them anymore? Whether or not they will be for Posthumous baptisms is irrelevant. I'm sure anyone of any faith would like to be able to research their ancestry. Utter silliness. No insult intended to any Catholics. My whole family in Europe still is...they love to pick on my lack of wine drinking! :) Leslie -----Original Message----- From: irl-co-donegal-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:irl-co-donegal-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Liam Martin Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 4:49 AM To: irl-co-donegal@rootsweb.com; donegaleire@rootsweb.com; IRL-DONEGAL@rootsweb.com Subject: [IRL-CO-DONEGAL] Vatican letter directs bishops to keep parish records from Mormons Saving our souls - losing our records In an effort to block posthumous rebaptisms by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Catholic dioceses throughout the world have been directed by the Vatican not to give information in parish registers to the Mormons' Genealogical Society of Utah. An April 5 letter from the Vatican Congregation for Clergy, obtained by Catholic News Service in late April, asks episcopal conferences to direct all bishops to keep the Latter-day Saints from microfilming and digitizing information contained in those registers. Read on at the URL http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0802443.htm Clearly, genealogists will now be sent different planets in paradise. Liam "A bird in the bush is worth two in the cat" ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to IRL-CO-DONEGAL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Since Baptism is for the remission of sins it is difficult to know why the Pope would want to prevent people from offering such a gift to their ancestors, even if he believes he alone has the authority.....There was no sinless person who lived and died except the Saviour himself....so a rededication of such covenants with the Lord can hardly offend any true Christian...that is all it should be viewed as...rededication of ones vows, or the vows ones sponsors made for one at the time of one's infant baptism....being made again by a relative, out of love and concern...and since the spirit or soul of the deceased person would be more able to understand than when he or she was an infant to me it makes sense.... I converted to LDS because the Nuns told me my Protestant mother who taught me to pray would go to hell.....and as a child, I didnt believe them. They also told me my cat had no soul and had not gone to heaven where my mother told me it had gone and so, knowing it had a spirit and I loved it...I disbelieved all they told me after that. As an adult I now know they meant well and were only repeating what they had been taught. I know they gave me a good education and are in Heaven now, learning more. I revere their memories now because of the tolerance I have learned in the LDS Church...of which I have been a member for 37 years. I have had some wonderful experiences in research which lead me to believe my deceased ancestors are happy that I care enough to preserve their records and heritage... and my grandparents were denied a Church wedding through no fault of their own, due to a divorce which was by desertion and not the fault of one of them so having them sealed for time and all eternity was DEFINITELY not against their wishes....it was the fulfilment of their wildest dreams. The torture they must have endured not being able to marry in Church has ended. The last Pope was such a forward thinking man. a true Saint.....I am sure he would not approve of the current decision which is a truly backward step to ecumenical oneness with ones fellow Christians..Attending Mass is rededicating oneself and if people have a Mass said for my deceased relatives I thank them for their kind thoughts. I hope they feel the same about prayers and requests in the Temple of the Lord for their deceased relatives...which are kindly meant as a gift of love and devotion...how can this offend anyone? Anne