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Catholic Bishop Urges Interfaith Dialogue During Speech at Latter-day Saint Institute of Religion

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Photo caption: The Most Reverend Bishop John Charles Wester of the Salt Lake City Diocese of the Catholic Church speaks to students at the LDS Institute of Religion and at the Alumni House on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah Tuesday Sept. 18, 2012 (August Miller, UVU Marketing)

Speaking yesterday at an interfaith gathering at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Institute of Religion at Utah Valley University, the Most Reverend John C. Wester, Catholic Bishop of Salt Lake City, said Latter-day Saints and Catholics share the “mutual desire to stand shoulder-to-shoulder as we give witness to Jesus Christ as His disciples.”

A respect for the diverse beliefs and unique contributions of all the world’s faiths is taught and emphasized in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Echoing this sentiment, Bishop Wester said in a Deseret News report of the event that “learning about each other — how we are different, and how we are alike — is an important step that must be taken before the marathon of interfaith relations can be run.”

Bishop Wester also explained the commonalities of Latter-day Saint and Catholic belief, including “the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the centrality of Jesus Christ” and “adherence to the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes.”

Latter-day Saint leader Elder L. Whitney Clayton of the Presidency of the Seventy attended the event.

Video of an interfaith discussion that followed Tuesday’s Institute event can be found in a KSL-TV report.

Additional Resources:

Interfaith relations

Intermountain Catholic: Bishop Wester visits Orem Institute of Religion

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