Should I give my genealogy charts to my Mormon brother?

[Judesfriend]

I am a cradle Catholic and from a large family. My brother became a Mormon nearly 30 years ago. I took an interest in genealogy years ago and he knows this. I am going to visit him soon and he has asked me to bring our family charts for him to copy. I hesitate to give them to him because I know the Mormons baptize the dead for their church. I don’t believe in this practice and it disturbs me. We are taught that baptism is for the living! I don’t want this to cause a rift between us. What do you suggest? Should I just hand them over to him, or just “forget” and leave them at home?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

I cannot recommend giving materials to your brother that you know he is going to put to an objectively sacrilegious use (attempts to “rebaptize” or to “baptize the dead” are an abuse of the sacrament of baptism and thus objective sacrilege). Perhaps you can simply tell your brother, “I’m sorry, but as you know, the Catholic Church does not believe in baptism for the dead. For that reason I cannot give you information that your church will use for that purpose.” (Note here that the technique is to shift the “blame” to the respective churches rather than to place it on your brother.) If your brother reacts badly to this perfectly reasonable explanation of your reason for declining, that is his responsibility. I cannot recommend allowing him to use your relationship to manipulate you into doing what will violate your conscience.