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SAN LUIS, Colo. (AP) -- An investigation into whether three Mormon missionaries defaced a Catholic shrine has been dropped after Roman Catholic Bishop Arthur Tafoya urged forgiveness.
Costilla County sheriff's investigator Cpl. Scott Powell said Friday that the investigation had just gotten under way when Tafoya asked that charges not be pursued.
Photos posted on the Internet showed the young men at the Shrine of the Mexican Martyrs at the Chapel of All Saints, which stands on a butte overlooking San Luis.
The photos -- taken in 2006 -- show young men holding the broken head of a statue, preaching from the Book of Mormon at an altar and pretending to sacrifice one another.
The Mormon church officials earlier issued an apology.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
