Ah the blessed “time” before this constant well of problems and disappointments called life happens. No fear of hell, no torment, no unanswered prayer to a silent God. But out of God’s awesome love, here I am!
This is completely untrue. Believing our souls existed prior to conception is not a “Mormon belief”, and there is no definite Catholic teaching that addresses the question.
It is simply unknown! There is not a thing wrong with believing that our immortal souls were created at the beginning of time with God, and not at the time of our conception. There is also not a thing wrong with believing God creates our soul at the time of conception. We simply don’t know!
Actually there IS a definite Church teaching that addresses the question. I asked a similar question in Ask an Apologist on May 30th:
Was Mary Pre-Incarnate, that is, did she exist in spirit before she was Immaculately Conceived? A friend told me it was in the Catechism, and that we all exist as spirits before our bodies are conceived, but I can’t find it and just does sound right to me. Can you help? Mary Ellen, toc
Here is the answer from Fr. Vincent Serpa (my emphasis added)
Hi,
That is not a teaching of the Catholic Church. **The Church teaches that the soul is directly created at the time of conception **as in Gen. 2:7 (Catechism of the Catholic Church, # 362, 363, 364, 365). Mary was fully human and in this she was no exception.
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