Faith leaders joined Wednesday in praising the late LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson for his ecumenical outreach, charitable impulses at home and abroad, and for offering a ready hand of friendship across ethnic, national and religious divides.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops stated that Monson, who died in Salt Lake City late Tuesday at age 90, was “known for his hands-on approach and concern for the poor,” even as he “presided over a church confronting challenges and change, within and without.”
Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, president of the Washington, D.C.-based group, remarked that Monson’s tenure as president of the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was highlighted by “understanding and friendship .