Oregon Abuse Lawsuit Seeks LDS Church Financial Information

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is fighting a legal request for financial statements detailing its income and the value of its assets. The request comes as part of an Oregon lawsuit in which Plaintiff Jeremiah Scott, 22, accused the LDS Church of failing to warn his mother that Franklin Richard Curtis was a pedophile. Curtis boarded in Scott's Portland home and abused him at age 11. He was convicted of the abuse in 1994 and died in 1995.

Catholic Decision to Exclude Mormon Baptisms Attracts Wide Attention

A Catholic Church decision, announced Tuesday in the official Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, says that LDS baptisms will no longer be accepted as valid by the Catholic Church. Since Tuesday's announcement, the change in policy has made national news in the US, carried in the Associated Press' wire service and printed in newspapers worldwide.

New York Times Looks at Nauvoo Temple

A seven-foot statue of the angel Moroni will be hoisted 150 feet above the ground to top the Nauvoo, Illionois Temple sometime in September. Striking in its skin of gold leaf and with a trumpet raised to its lips, the statue is the crowning touch on the 50,000 square-foot building that heralds the return of the temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Nauvoo. The Temple's return to Nauvoo was the subject of a New York Times article earlier this week.

Other Churchwide News Briefs

LDS Charities Donates Library to Ghanian Youth Choir

LDS Charities has made a donation of $14 million in assorted text and computer books to the Winneba Youth Choir in Accra, Ghana to establish a library for the choir and other children in the Wenneba District. LDS Charities board member Samuel K.A.B. Crabbe presented the donation to the choir, which Mrs. Marian Arkaah, the choir's chairperson, received on its behalf. Mrs. Arkaah thanked LDS Charities, saying that the donation will go a long way to assist children in the Winneba area. She also suggested that the Church help establish an exchange program between the choir and choral groups in the US.

Genealogy Helps Trace Genetic Diseases

A recent article in the Los Angeles Daily News looks at how to do genealogical research. But the article, evidently accompanying another article on diseases with genetic elements, assumes that the motivation is to discover genetic traits. It recommends the LDS Church's Family History Center and a book by Carol Daus, "Past Imperfect: How Tracing Your Family Medical History Can Save Your Life." According to the article, Daus' book can help you create your own genogram, a graphic depiction of your relationship with your ancestors.

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