October 3, 2025, 3:30pm MDT
At a university conference held in Rome, Italy, Elder Todd Christofferson, a quorum of 12 apostles, emphasized the common values between the Latter-day Saints’ Church of Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church regarding human dignity and pluralistic society.
“As disciples of Christ, we have a strict responsibility to defend human dignity and moral institutions in the setting of religious pluralism,” Elder Christofferson said on Tuesday, September 23rd.
Citing three important Catholic documents to highlight his message, he cited extensively from the 2024 declaration on human dignity, “Dignitas Infinita.” “Dignitatis Humanae,” a 1965 paper on religious freedom from Vatican II. “Rerum Novarum” is a 1891 message from Pope Leo XIII about the dignity of work.
“I am deeply grateful for the Catholic Church’s commitment to these concepts and the shared values of our two churches,” Elder Christofferson said.
While quoting from the document, the apostles emphasized and explained the corresponding beliefs and views of the Latter-day Saints’ Church of Jesus Christ.
In addition to a news release on Elder Christofferson’s involvement in the conference, the Church’s European newsroom also released two video summaries.
A conference co-hosted by the Centre for International Law and Religion at Brigham Young University attracts scholars and theologians to discuss topics of infinite dignity, human freedom, and the role of law.
Elder Christofferson predicted the meeting would have a continuing positive effect, and said it had a rippling effect, likened to stones that fell into the pond.
“We tried to emphasize that our infinite values are not only our creations of God, but that the redness of the human soul by Jesus Christ, his tone sin, and that it leads to the meaning of our ultimate destiny,” he said of his message. “Our ultimate value is united with the ultimate fate of immortality and eternal life. His grace and his a sin are key to the value that every soul has, regardless of where and when they live.
Elder Christofferson said he was grateful to theologians who were attending the Roman Congress, which has been ingrained in the concept of God’s infinite values and human dignity.
Conclusion of his meeting remarks, Elder Christofferson cited comments made by President Russell M. Nelson of the late Church on the dignity and peaceful manufacturing of humanity, published in the OP-ED published by Time Magazine a week before the Church’s September 27th death.
“Each of us has inherent value and dignity. I think we are all children of our loving Heavenly Father,” writes President Nelson. “However, recognizing the fundamental truths under this belief that we all deserve dignity, regardless of your religion or spirituality, brings about emotional, spiritual, spiritual and spiritual balance. … A century of experience certainly did not teach this. Our lives and our world will be more stable and more enjoyable.”
Elder Christofferson congratulated BYU for holding similar meetings and seminars with global partners around the world. “I give them a lot of credibility that we see different places and groups like this coming together and talking about these very important concepts and realizing that we share a lot of commonalities.”
The day after the meeting, on Wednesday, September 24th, Elder Christofferson personally met with the prominent name of George Kubacado, Director of Dicaster, for an interfaith dialogue in the Catholic Church.
The events of Romans came at the end of Elder Christofferson’s province with Europe on September 10-24. This includes meetings, prayers, training and meetings with local leaders, members and missionaries in the UK, Norway, Denmark and Latvia.
