Catholic church doesn’t understand LDS doctrine of baptism

David May 7th, 2008

After looking into the story about the Catholic church’s concerns about LDS baptism a bit more, it sounds to me like the Catholic church doesn’t really understand the LDS doctrine of baptism and hasn’t taken the time to research or ask about it. From Catholic World News,

The Catholic Church objects to the Mormon practice of "rebaptism" for two reasons: first because baptism is permanent, and cannot be repeated; second because the "baptism" practiced by Mormons is invalid, since the faithful are not baptized "in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit."

The Catholic officials quoted here haven’t looked at the exact wording of the LDS baptismal ordinance from D&C 20:73

Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

OK… we have "Holy Ghost" here instead of "Holy Spirit"… but looking the actually wording of the Catholic baptismal prayer from the Catholic Encyclopedia we get…

I baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

Hmmm… if we are concerned with actual wording, the Catholic news source doesn’t even know exact Catholic doctrine, much less LDS doctrine.

Vatican tells local bishops not to share parish data with LDS

David May 5th, 2008

What may be a blow to LDS Church efforts to digitize and index historical records, the Vatican has sent a letter to diocese around the world to not share parish records with members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  From the Deseret News (May 4),

… 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, if they so choose.

The LDS Church has not made a statement yet regarding this issue. 

Church spokesman Mike Otterson said the church may have more to say on the subject later in the week and that LDS officials had not yet made contact with Vatican representatives about the issue.

After having several instances where Jewish individuals have escalated concerns regarding LDS baptism of Jewish holocaust victims (see Deseret News, Dec 19 2006), this could also impact the Church’s relations with other organized religions.