Concerns arose as a result of a dispute between a Catholic archbishop and the National Library of Ireland over access to parish and diocesan records.

According to a report in the Irish Catholic newspaper, Archbishop of Cashel, Dermot Clifford and Bishop of Kerry William Murphy have written to the library to object to the records being made available indiscriminately to any member of the public.

Their worry is that members of the Mormon church, also known as the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, use such records to posthumously baptise Catholics into the Mormon faith.

Neither Bishop Murphy nor Archbishop Clifford were available for comment, but Archbishop Clifford issued a statement which said: “The archdiocese has not surrendered its claim to copyright of the records at the National Library.

“In due course, a full statement will be made.”

No spokesperson was available from the National Library, but it is understood the dispute arose after the library, which previously withheld the Cashel records from public access at the archbishop’s request, began making them available.

It is the custom of the Mormon church to baptise deceased members of other churches, in a practice critics have branded an attempt to artificially boost membership numbers.

A spokesman for the Mormon community in Ireland, which numbered 833 individuals in the 2002 census and 1,237 in the 2006 census, referred to the teachings of the church which state that baptisms for the dead are necessary to allow them to be reunited with Jesus in the afterlife.

It stressed that such baptisms did not alter the faith of the deceased if they did not wish it to.

“The Church also teaches that those in the afterlife who have been baptised by proxy are free to accept or reject the ordinance.

“Baptism is not binding if the individual rejects it in the afterlife.”