Elder Caussé Leads Historic Interfaith and Government Visits in Asia

A historic visit from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Catholic leaders in Indonesia took place on April 20, 2026. Elder Gérald Caussé of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles led the delegation comprising his wife, Valérie, Elder Kelly R. Johnson of the Asia Area Presidency and his wife, Teressa, with local Church representatives. They were received by Mgr. Antonius Subianto Bunjamin, O.S.C., President of the Bishops’ Conference of Indonesia and representatives from the Catholic Family and Gender and Women Empowerment Commissions.

“We welcome you here to have a more intensive collaboration between your church and the Catholic church,” said Mgr. Bunjamin in remarks following the visit. “This is a way to build a dialogue in a humanitarian sense, in order to bring peace to the world.”

The meeting featured a warm exchange on each church’s programs and initiatives, with an emphasis on the central role of the family in building faith. Elder Caussé then gifted his hosts with a framed Family Proclamation in Italian and Indonesian, personally highlighting to them principles therein common to both faiths.

Elder Caussé also took the opportunity to share about the upcoming Jakarta Indonesia Temple and explained its role in worship. Mgr. Bunjamin called the visit “a blessing to us,” encouraging the Church of Jesus Christ to complete the temple and to discuss further opportunities for collaboration.

Christian Outreach

The next day, Elder Caussé called on the Indonesian Bible Society with Elder Johnson and toured its museum and library, which houses some of their work to translate the complete Bible into 43 of the more than 700 local languages. He was given an honorary cultural welcome by Rev. Dr. Henriette Hutabarat-Lebang, M.A., Asia President of the World Council of Churches and the Society’s General Chairperson. Rev. Gomar Gultom, the immediate past general chairman of the Communion of Churches in Indonesia, and other department heads of the Society were also present.

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Elder Caussé expressed his appreciation for their “invaluable” efforts to make the Bible in Indonesia accessible to all. He acknowledged that they are “preserving the word of God and the word of man” as they saved diminishing languages in the process. He also presented them with a framed Family Proclamation and shared excerpts from the family-centered gospel of Jesus Christ, which resonated with their focus on Ecclesia Domestica.

Rev. Gultom then accompanied the Church delegation next door to the Communion of Churches in Indonesia, where Elder Caussé was briefed by the Deputy General Secretary and various commission heads on the organization’s five-year master plan and current partnerships with the Church, especially on humanitarian needs.

Rev. Gultom thanked the Church for continuing the collaboration and hoped it would continue till “the coming of Christ.” He later related how he began his relationship with the Church of Jesus Christ, saying he noticed its many humanitarian works and decided to extend an invitation to work together since they share the “same purpose.” Along the way, he discovered “so many similarities” and found the “friendship with hospitality” typical of the Christian faith, which he hoped all churches in Indonesia would emulate.

Muslim Friendships

On April 21, 2026, Elder Caussé visited with Prof. Dr. H. Nasaruddin Umar, M.A., the Indonesian Minister of Religious Affairs and Grand Imam of the Istiqlal Mosque, the faith’s largest in Southeast Asia, which the Apostle later toured. He was joined again by Sister Valérie Caussé and Elder Johnson, as well as Elder Kevin R. Duncan of the Presidency of the Seventy, Asia Area President Elder Benjamin M.Z. Tai, with the brethren’s spouses. Dr. Umar gave divine thanks for the chance to strengthen ties of “meaningful friendship,” congratulating Elder Caussé on his call as an Apostle, and shared about Indonesia’s diversity and pluralism.

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Declaring that “religion should be a bridge,” Dr. Umar said that “diversity is not a burden but a treasure” to the largest Muslim-majority country in the world. He noted that “my theology and your theology are very similar” and invited future collaboration.

Dr. Umar recounted a fond memory of visiting Utah in 2023, when he attended the 30th Annual International Law and Religion Symposium at Brigham Young University (BYU). He shared that he recommends his students to study there if they go to America because it felt different from other parts of the United States.

Elder Caussé praised the Ministry’s focus on fostering neighborly relationships and said the Church has felt welcome in Indonesia for nearly six decades. He updated Dr. Umar on the developments at the Jakarta temple and the pending completion of the Salt Lake Temple renovations. Presenting him with Salt Lake Temple mementos, Elder Caussé invited Minister Umar to the 2027 celebrations as an honored guest.

Elder Caussé also lunched with Alissa Wahid, the director of the GUSDURian Network and the eldest daughter of the late Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid. Sister Caussé, the Tais and Johnsons participated. She told Elder Caussé stories about her father’s friendship with the Church from 1997 and how she upheld her father’s legacy through her roles and past experience as the first female on the Central Executive Board of the largest Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama.

Elder Caussé remarked that “Indonesia is a such a country that is showing the way in religious tolerance – we love it and we want to be part of it.” He shared the Church’s four main priorities and paraphrased her father’s famous words about respecting differences and honoring unity to “love our differences and build on our commonalities.”

 “The relationship between the Wahid family and the Church is not only just friendship,” reflected Alissa Wahid in a subsequent interview. “There are universal values and principles that we share and that’s why it’s very easy for the Wahid family to respect what we learn from the Church community all this time. We learn so much and we also see ourselves in the community of the Church. So we’re hoping to strengthen this relationship between the two sides and also to expand it.”

Government Meetings

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In Viet Nam, Elder Caussé and Elder Johnson made greetings to the Government Committee on Religious Affairs (GCRA) Vice Chairman Nguyễn Tiến Trọng and Dr. Nguyen Van Thanh, Head of Department of Ethnic and Religious Affairs at the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front. Both officials had also attended the BYU Symposium in earlier years and recalled being hosted there, with Vice Chairman Nguyễn recounting how he met returned missionaries from Viet Nam and Dr. Nguyen remembering the visit fondly too.

Elder Johnson reported on the Church’s recent activities and humanitarian efforts and shared in particular with the GCRA how allowing young missionaries to come to Viet Nam resulted in them going home and being ambassadors, having learned to love the language, people and land. Elder Caussé thanked both organizations for their efforts to help and support the Church in Viet Nam then gifted them the Book of Mormon in Vietnamese.

“I was impressed by the way we were welcomed, their warmth and the ability that we had to build those bridges of understanding,” said Elder Caussé of his interfaith and government visits. “We are all sons and daughters of God, and we have a lot in common. And it was a special way to see that, indeed, our Savior Jesus Christ gave us a good example to love all and to love each.”