The Catholic Church has just ordered all dioceses to not give ancestral information in parishes to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Here’s a quote from the Vatican:

“The congregation requests that the conference notifies each diocesan bishop in order to ensure that such a detrimental practice is not permitted in his territory, due to the confidentiality of the faithful and as not to cooperate with the erroneous practices of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

Terrence Fitzgerald, vicar general of the Diocese of Salt Lake City, came to the Mormon Church’s defense:

CNS quotes Msgr. J. Terrence Fitzgerald, vicar general of the Diocese of Salt Lake City, as saying he didn’t understand why the LDS church was singled out by the Vatican letter. “We have a policy not to give out baptismal records to anyone unless they are entitled to have them,” Msgr. Fitzgerald told CNS. “That isn’t just for the Church of the Latter-day Saints. That is for all groups.”

The Catholic Church is being a little shortsighted. There are many reasons for doing family history work that have nothing to do with religion. The Huntsman Cancer Institute, for example, selected Utah for its research center because of all the family history records available in the state. The Mormon Church has done a lot of good by gathering all these records for anyone to reference. Alex Haley, who won the Pulitzer for his book Roots, got all his research from the Mormon Church. All the Vatican is really doing is preventing people (regardless of their religion) from finding out about their heritage.

I’d love to hear people’s thoughts on this.

[ad#on-post]