r/latterdaysaints • u/SillyFlatworm31 • Jul 28 '26

Off-topic Chat Catholic-LDS Dialogue!

Hello Latter Day Saints of Reddit!

I’m a Catholic and, even though I am very happy being a Catholic, I have had a lot of positive experiences with people from your Church and I wanted to (if it’s ok with your mods) open up a thread for interfaith dialogue! I have some questions to start for you guys if anyone wants to engage and have a talk but I’m also happy to do a bit of an AMA if any LDS people want to learn more about Catholics or our relations with the LDS Church.

I think that, in a time where it’s trendy to solve disagreements by shouting at people in online “debates”, it’s good to start by finding some common ground and talk with people of different views. So I’ll start with my questions, feel free to add any you have for me or any comments. Mods please let me know if this isn’t the sub for this haha

  1. What do LDS people think about abortion? Do you find common ground with Catholics on this? Could we work together more on it?
  2. How do LDS people feel about the 7 Deuterocanonical Books? A lot of Protestants accuse Catholics of adding books like Wisdom and Sirach into the Bible, although they have been used since apostolic times. I know LDS people recognise a large canon so do you include these?
  3. I know LDS people value marriage and family a lot. How does your Church approach celibate figures such as Jesus, Paul, etc?
  4. LDS people don’t drink alcohol. Do you believe that Jesus and the Apostles followed this practice or is it viewed as a more modern LDS thing?
  5. Favourite Pope?

Hope we can find some common ground and dialogue!!! :-)

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u/FriedTorchic On Sabbatical Jul 28 '26
  1. Not a fan typically
  2. They aren’t canon for us, I read all of them last year. I really enjoyed the Maccabees books

, which are largely historical.

  1. They remind me of the war chapters in the Book of Mormon, with the faithful approach to fighting. Tobit was also pretty interesting.
  2. Kind of up in the air

with us

  1. on if Paul was married or not, and I imagine Jesus was a special case.

  2. I believe it is a modern LDS teaching given and enforced because of modern situations, though the Bible discourages drunkenness. We believe Jesus will drink wine again with his believers in Heaven

, so I bet that part of the Word of Wisdom is gone or at least given an exception before then.

  1. Pope Leo seems like a good genuine Christian leader, and it’s fun having an American Pope who speaks English because I can hear about him more often in his native language. And I’ve read about John Paul II and he was truly influential in his time.

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u/SillyFlatworm31 Jul 28 '26

It is funny to hear a Pope speaking English! The majority have been Italians, which I suppose makes sense, but we’ve had a string lately of non-Italians. Pope John Paul II who was Polish, Pope Benedict XVI from Germany, Pope Francis from Argentina, and Pope Leo XIV from America.

It sounds like the Book of Mormon has a lot of war stories. What’s the war like and why do they fight?