[TI] Catholic church ban on Mormans accessing Sacramentalrecords.

Tue May 6 08:04:32 CDT 2008

Dear List:

As a practicing Catholic I can appreciate what the Church has done to
protect its "sacramental" records. While they may not be "holy" to
non-Catholics, they are so to us. Those records are a reflection and a
record of our spiritual journey, of decisions that each of us as
Catholics has made concerning our choice of faith and the paths which
we take in life.

Reading the article got me to thinking about what the article
reported. According to the article the Mormons have copied the records
so that they can "re-baptize" those of other faiths into their own
Mormon Church. "the Vatican had "grave reservations" about the LDS
Church's practice of posthumous baptisms by proxy, a practice in which
the names of the deceased are baptized into the LDS faith so that they
may be united in the afterlife with LDS families". I previously was
told that the records were copied so that each Mormon family could
re-link themselves to their "own" ancestors. The article makes it
sound as though every deceased person is "re-baptized" . That may or
may not be true. The media tends to slant the news depending on the
journalist's own point of view.

For a church to believe that after an individual's death, an
individual can be taken into a church to which they never intended to
belong sounds like "fuzzy thinking", but if that is their belief so be
it -- for them. It is not mine. We each make difficult choices for our
lives; one of the most difficult choices has to do with our
spirituality. Once we die and our souls rest with God, even if it were
possible, what right does anyone have to rescind or change our choice
of faith home?

While like the rest of you I would love to have access to all records,
church and civil, I respect the right of individual churches to keep
their records private. My need to have those records does not
transcend another's need to keep them sacred and secret. I think an
American patriot put it another way -- Patrick Henry said "my right to
extend my arm stops at another's nose." Hope I quoted that correctly.

Have a wonderful day.
Franciene McDonald

On Tue, May 6, 2008 at 7:27 AM, Jim McCarthy <jimhmc at comcast.net> wrote:
> Quite true. Abp. Burke has no authority over the Mormon Church, but he is a
> man who follows his own interpretation of rules; i.e. a loose cannon.  Jim
> McCarthy, Somerville, MA.
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Gerald Serrino" <gserrino at verizon.net>
> To: <terminiimerese at comunesofitaly.org>
> Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 10:51 PM
> Subject: Re: [TI] Catholic church ban on Mormans accessing
> Sacramentalrecords.
>
>
> > Kim,
> > I don't think Archbishop Burke has authority over the Mormon Chruch or
> > what
> > it does with records previously legally obtained I think your fears are
> > unfounded.
> >
> > Jerry
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Kim Sansone" <kimsansone at sbcglobal.net>
> > To: "Termini Website" <Terminiimerese at comunesofitaly.org>
> > Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 5:35 PM
> > Subject: [TI] Catholic church ban on Mormans accessing Sacramental
> > records.
> >
> >
> >>I belong to another list and received this email
> >> through that list regarding catholic sacramental
> >> records.   Click on the link or copy and paste it to
> >> read the article.   Let's hope this doesn't happen!
> >>
> >> Dear List:
> >>
> >> Back in the dark ages (about 25 years ago) I remember
> >> often being rebuked by a secretary in a Catholic
> >> rectory.  Back then only priests or their designees
> >> were deemed worthy of viewing their so-called
> >> "Sacramental Records".  These included baptism
> >> (birth), confirmation, marriage, and burial (death)
> >> records.  For many, many family historians this was a
> >> crushing blow, the only avenue left in which to gain
> >> knowledge of their ancestors.  The Catholic Church
> >> guarded the information with the same zeal that they
> >> still guard orphanage home records (regardless of the
> >> fact that the inmate was there for adoption or not).
> >> Somehow (I'd love to know the story behind this) the
> >> St. Louis Archdiocesan Parish Records were recorded by
> >> the Genealogical Society of Utah.  BTW, the
> >> Genealogical Society of Utah is dedicated to
> >> gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical
> >> information throughout the world. Established in 1894,
> >> it is an incorporated, nonprofit educational
> >> institution entirely funded by The Church of Jesus
> >> Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka the Mormons).  The
> >> St. Louis records were microfilmed in the early 1990s,
> >> and are currently available (all 242 microfilm reels)
> >> at the St. Louis County Library (as well as anywhere
> >> in the world with a Family History Library).  You
> >> might want to avail yourself of these records
> >> immediately.  Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, current
> >> head of the St. Louis Archdiocese, is well-known for
> >> his staunch support of Vatican directives, and I
> >> wouldn't be at all surprised if he takes the next
> >> logical step to have the existing microfilm burned.
> >>
> >> Link to news article on Catholic Church ban on Mormons
> >> accessing "Sacramental Records" :
> >>
> >> http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695276377,00.html
> >>
> >> Dave Lossos
> >> Lossos at Gmail.com
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >> TerminiImerese at comunesofitaly.org
> >> http://comunesofitaly.org/mailman/listinfo/terminiimerese_comunesofitaly.org
> >>
> >>
> >> --
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> >> 6:01 AM
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
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-- 
What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but
what is woven into the lives of others.(Pericles)