Mormons baptising dead Catholics
Wednesday September 03 2008
BISHOP of Kerry Bill Murphy is battling to protect parish records to ensure they are not used by Mormons to baptise dead Catholics.
Archbishop Dermot Clifford and Bishop Murphy have written to the National Library outlining their concern over parish records being handed over to “all comers”.
Their fear is that the death records have been or will be used by Mormons — or members of the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints — to posthumously baptise dead Catholics in the Mormon faith as part of a socalled “proxy baptism service”.
The National Library claims that three Catholic dioceses had lifted restrictions on access to the National Library's holding of microfilmed parish-registered records some years ago. In the case of the remaining three dioceses, the level of access varied from none, in the case of records from the diocese of Cashel and Emily, to minor restrictions in the case of the diocese of Cloyne and Kerry.
The Library also claims that microfilms of the Roman Catholic parish registers are already available in many local heritage centres throughout the country.
A spokesperson for the Mormons told The Irish Catholic newspaper that posthumous baptisms by proxy have been common practice for the Mormons for more than a century, allowing the dead to be baptised into the faith so they may be united in the after life.
The spokesperson also confirmed that all available records are used to carry out this practice. The controversy over parish records emerges just months after the Vatican warned bishops’ conferences around the world about Mormons accessing diocesan and parish registers.
A senior catholic source is reported as saying that there is now a fear among senior Irish churchmen that making the records freely available will “encourage Mormons to baptise dead Irish Catholics en masse”.
Bishop Bill Murphy was unavailable for comment, but Archbishop Clifford said that the Archdiocese has not surrendered its claim to copyright of the records held in trust at the National Library and that, in due course, a full statement will be issued on the matter.
- AIDAN O’CONNOR
