Catholics paved way for LDS, speaker says

PROVO — Once, when he was 16 years old, Gerald Hansen Jr., a professor of religious education at Brigham Young University-Idaho, called his friend's Catholic religion the "great and abominable church."

But on Saturday morning at Brigham Young University, Hansen spoke to an audience at the annual Sydney B. Sperry Symposium about how the Catholic Church actually paved the way for his own faith to be founded and, in time, flourish.

"As (members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) we give credit to Protestants and the reformers, but I think it's time that we recognize that you don't just go from the Roman Empire to Martin Luther to Joseph Smith," Hansen said at the symposium, an annual religious convention.

"There are a lot of good things that happened in between."

For the first time in 33 years, the Sperry Symposium focused on events in history previous to the establishment of the LDS Church and its founder, Joseph Smith.

The symposium usually focuses on books scripture. This year was markedly different.

The theme: "Prelude to the Restoration: From Apostasy to the Restored Church."

"Sometimes in the (LDS) church, we like to dwell so much on the burning bush of revelation that we overlook that somebody planted the bush, and somebody went to find the bush," said Keith Wilson, who presented a lecture about the innovations of printing presses at the turn of the century. "It wasn't a coincidence that these things happened the way they did."

According to Hansen, the Catholic Church was fundamental to the establishment of Christianity in the world, and not just by coincidence. Because of the Catholic Church, Hansen said, books of the Old and New Testaments were preserved.

Hansen also said Catholics can be credited for the widespread Christianity of today.

The symposium is a free event for the public, sponsored by the religious education department at BYU. Most of the attendees of the event are members of the LDS Church.

Though this year's theme was a change from past years, some audience members said they appreciated the historical emphasis.

"One of the things that occurred to me is that just common people, when they took on hard tasks, made a phenomenal difference in the world," said Abe Bundy, St. George, who's attended the symposium for six years. "Many times we think that just because we are common people we can't make a difference. And when we get this historical perspective, we see that common people make all of the difference."

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