"Nothing is forced on anyone," Bills said. "Since no offense is intended, we hope none will be taken."

Even though Catholics believe the rebaptisms change nothing in the afterlife for the deceased, Roberson said he could see how finding out that a service has been done on one's behalf might affect their survivors.

"It constitutes a denial of the baptism that already took place," he said. "People could certainly have reason to be upset."

In 1995 the LDS Church agreed with Jewish leaders to end its practice of posthumously baptizing Jews. However, after several Jewish organizations complained that the practice hadn't stopped and Radkey produced the names of at least 20,000 Jews in the index, the church last December rededicated itself to ending the practice and removing the names.

Radkey, however, said many names still have not been removed, despite what she called a "cosmetic" clean-up two months ago of Jews who died in concentration camps. In fact, within the last few months she has found the names of prominent Jews still in the database, albeit under their original names or those with alternate spellings.

They include David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, and Theodor Herzl, Hungarian journalist and the founder of Zionism.

Radkey said the inclusion of Ben-Gurion, listed by his birth name of David Green and baptized since 2000, indicates the LDS Church members are not sincere about abiding by the agreement with Jewish leaders.

"If he would be done since the 1995 agreement, then they'll do any Jew," she said.

Bills said the church is actively abiding by the agreement, and will remove Jewish names when they are presented to church officials.

There's no agreement with the Russian Orthodox Church, however.

The LDS Church arranged through the cash-strapped Russian Society of Historians and Archivists in Moscow to reimburse the labor costs for transferring 18th-century church membership lists to microfilm.

The church says it is a service to humanity. Historical, genealogical data are preserved on microfilm and safe from natural disasters, since one copy is kept with the sponsoring organization and the other in Salt Lake City.

After objections were raised last month by one Russian Orthodox Church parish east of Moscow, the practice has been suspended for further review.

The concern extends to the church's U.S. office, which says the LDS Church has no right to rebaptize people into a different faith after their deaths.

"The decision that the person makes is made here on Earth, that's final," said Father Joseph, the church's New York-based spokesman.