At the heart of the issue is the LDS Church's practice of posthumous baptism, a sacred rite performed in LDS Church temples to offer church membership to the deceased. Church members are encouraged to do family genealogy research and to forward the names of their ancestors for baptism.

According to Helen Radkey, a Salt Lake City researcher who has fought against the Church's practice of listing Jewish names, Wiesenthal's name first appeared on the database around Dec. 11. She called it "an appalling indignity" and charged that "even if Mormons decide to hastily remove Wiesenthal's name from the part of the IGI database that is visible to the public, they will forever keep private records of any LDS proxy temple rites that he may have already been subjected to."

The church's position is that church membership can be rejected in the afterlife and that the baptismal rite is only an offer of membership.

Jews offended by the practice signed an agreement with LDS leaders in 1995 that should have prevented the adding of the names of Holocaust victims to the database. The agreement also limited Jewish entries to only those persons who are direct ancestors of current church members.

"A joint committee of church leaders and leaders of Jewish Holocaust organizations work diligently to maintain good-faith, cooperative relationships," Olsen said.

---

E-mail: jarvik@desnews.com, wleonard@desnews.com