Utah's Roman Catholic Bishop John Wester tells KSL's Carole Mikita that a Vatican letter "to keep the Latter-day Saints from microfilming and digitizing information contained in parish registers" is simply an administrative measure to protect confidential records.This is not in any way an attack against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In a baptismal record, for example, there could be a whole list of maiden names that somebody might want to use for not-so-good purposes, to break into a computer and get that like a password. Maybe somebody was adopted and the natural parents are not known, that kind of thing."
Nice try, Bish.
But the Vatican directive specifically names the LDS Genealogical Society of Utah, not generic identity thieves. In fact, the Rev. James Massa, executive director of the U.S. bishops' Secretariat of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, acknowledged the step was taken to prevent the Mormons from using records to posthumously baptize the ancestors of Catholics, "so as not to cooperate with the erroneous practices of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."
You have to feel for Utah's man in red. Despite growing numbers of Catholics in Zion, Wester still has to get along in a political culture dominated by the LDS Church.
2 Comments:
Real nice. At least the bishop is demonstrating more brain power than the Vatican. With infinite scandals and molestation cases haunting the Catholic Church, why on earth would you call the practices of another faith "erroneous"?
I fail to see how anyone can blame the Catholic Church for its position.
Mormons on the one hand seem to so desire "acceptance" by orthodox Christians, and yet on the other hand wish to remain separate. Perhaps the LDS faithful should respect the different views of Christians and be content in their unique practices, no matter what the rest of us think. :-)
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