Catholics Honor Church

The Catholic Community Services of Utah on November 23 honored The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for its “sensitive, unselfish, and ecumenical response to the needs of the homeless.”

President Thomas S. Monson accepted a Special Community Contribution Award at the Catholic service agency’s community service awards dinner in Salt Lake City. The Church was also commended for its support in rebuilding a Salt Lake City soup kitchen that was destroyed by fire twenty months ago.

The Most Reverend William K. Weigand, bishop of the Salt Lake City Roman Catholic Diocese, presented the award.

Salt Lake advertising executive William Brennan, in announcing the award, said the Church “quietly, and usually without public knowledge, responds with true charity to the needs of our fellow men and women in our own community and throughout the world.”

Brennan said the award presented to President Monson is from “those who cannot say thank you to him,” including nursing home residents throughout the Salt Lake Valley.

“He visits them sometimes when he should be elsewhere, but to President Monson, the importance of these patients is overriding,” Brennan said.

He noted that the Catholic agency also thanks the Church “for the role it has played in this community on behalf of the people and the groups who are not members of the LDS Church, but who have benefited from its charity. As is typical with true benefactors, much happens that is not in the public eye.”

Brennan added, “On a worldwide scale, we know that the Mormon Church has contributed a considerable amount of money to African relief and to other causes through the Catholic Relief Services and other agencies. These are very, very significant contributions.”

In responding to the award, President Monson said, “I’m confident that I express the feelings of President [Ezra Taft] Benson, President [Gordon B.] Hinckley, and all of the General Authorities of the Church in accepting this honor with deep gratitude.”

President Monson mentioned attending the dedication of the rebuilt soup kitchen, where food is provided for the needy. “But what I noticed most was the interdenominational chapel where a spiritual feast can be given to the souls of men and women, which is far more significant,” he said.

He congratulated the Catholic service agency on its efforts to aid people in need, adding, “Hunger knows no religious persuasion; and human need, no territorial boundary.”