The Vatican has decided that Mormons must be rebaptized before converting to Catholicism.
The decision comes one year after a similar action by the policy-making body of the United Methodist Church.
The Vatican directive, released last week by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, means the Roman Catholic Church will treat Mormon converts the same way Mormons deal with Catholics, and others, who embrace Mormonism.
"We rebaptize Catholics, we rebaptize Protestants and we rebaptize everyone else," said Michael Otterson, a spokesman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Otterson added that the church was "neither concerned nor offended" by the Vatican directive.
But the decisions by two major Christian churches rub against Mormon efforts to be clearly understood as a Christian church, which have included emphasizing the name Jesus Christ in the church's title and discouraging use of Mormon Church as a short-hand label.
Catholic officials said the directive did not constitute a judgment against Mormons, on the relationship of individual Mormons with Jesus or on the ability of the two churches to cooperate. But the ruling makes clear the church regards Mormonism as varying in its essential beliefs from traditional Christianity. Members of Protestant and Orthodox churches may convert to Catholicism without being rebaptized.
The past few years have been a period of rapid growth among Mormons, in which the church has expanded far beyond its Utah base to become a worldwide organization, with 11 million members, more than double the total in 1980. That makes Mormons far more likely to come into contact with other faiths.
The Catholic directive was based on a pastoral study of the issue. "The Mormon understanding of baptism is not the same as the church's understanding of baptism," said Bill Ryan, a spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He said the directive was based on important differences in how the two faiths understand the concept of God as the Trinity -- Father, Son and Holy Spirit -- in whose name both churches conduct baptisms.
How many people will be affected is not known, as neither Catholics nor Mormons keep records of the religious backgrounds of converts to their churches. The Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City receives 400 to 500 adult converts each year, many presumably Mormon, given that 70 percent of Utah's population is.
As for Mormons converting Catholics, the church's missionaries are active in many nations with high Catholic populations, particularly in Latin America. Last year, for example, Mormon missionaries recorded 32,000 conversions in Brazil.
The Vatican directive will require little obvious change in how the Salt Lake City Diocese deals with converts from Mormonism.
Bishop George Niederauer of Salt Lake City said the diocese's priests and deacons have been performing "conditional baptisms" of Mormon converts, a baptism done whenit is uncertain whether a prospective convert was previously baptized.
"This isn't condemning the LDS faith," the bishop said. "It's just saying it isn't the same as ours."
The two churches' baptismal practices differ.. The Catholic church baptizes children born into the faith as infants, typically by 6 months. A bishop, priest or deacon, standing at the baptismal font, pours a small amount of water onto the infant's head.
The church also permits adults and adolescents to be baptized by immersion..
Mormons baptize children at age 8, which the church considers the "age of accountability." Baptism involves fully immersing a person in the waters of a large font in a chapel. Because Mormons have a lay priesthood baptisms may be performed by any man who holds the requisite priesthood rank. A father may baptize his children; a missionary may baptize a convert. . A commentary on the Catholic church's directive in L'Osservatore Romano, a Vatican newspaper, said that Mormon baptisms did not involve "a true invocation of the Trinity" because Mormons believe the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three separate divine beings, rather than one God existing within three persons of one substance.
Mormonism, by its own definition a "restoration" of original Christianity, does not draw from the teachings of early church fathers and councils who fully developed the doctrine of the Trinity in response to heretical challenges.
Otterson acknowledged the differences. "We don't use the term Trinity," he said, adding the church does not regard that term as originating in the New Testament. "Our perception of God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost is that they are one in purpose, but are separate beings," he said.