Rome Italy Mormon Temple

On Saturday, 4 October 2008, during the opening session of the 178th Semiannual General Conference, Thomas S. Monson, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, announced that a temple would be built in Rome, Italy. President Monson dedicated the temple site on 23 October 2010. During his remarks to the 500 guests at the groundbreaking ceremony, he said, "My heart is filled with gratitude. Members throughout Italy and the entire Mediterranean area will be able to come here." Senator Lucio Malan commented that it was "A ceremony that profoundly touched me for the sincere and heartfelt appreciation of those attending. A positive day for Italy because those who profess to obey the laws of the state and the laws of God make the country in which they live a better place."

The 140-foot Rome Italy Temple is located in the countryside outside of Rome, just 11 miles from Saint Peter’s Basilica, but will be accessible via the highway. The temple sits on 15 acres and will feature lush gardens, and a 40,000-square-foot temple with floor and ceiling designs to mimic Michelangelo’s Capitoline Hill plaza overlooking the Roman forum. Marble from Italy, Spain, Turkey, and Brazil is being used to decorate the interior and exterior spaces. It will be the first LDS temple constructed in Italy and the 12th temple in Europe. There are more than 30,000 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Italy, with seven stakes and two missions. The construction plans for the Rome Italy Temple site also includes a Stake Center meeting house (a stake being roughly similar to a Catholic diocese), a Visitors' Center, a Family History Center, and patron housing. When completed, the Rome Italy Temple will serve members who, according to local Rome Stake President, Massimo De Feo, currently travel to the Bern Switzerland Temple if they wish to do temple work.

The Daily Beast.com reports, "Italy has 103 Latter-day Saints congregations under 10 stakes, divided into missions based in Milan and Rome, with the highest concentration in the north of Italy, where 53 percent of Mormons live, compared to 29 percent in southern Italy and 18 percent in the central regions. Sicily alone has 3,052 members of the Church; the region around Rome has 2,117, according to the LDS Italy archives. There are more female Mormons (53 percent) than men (47 percent) in the country." President De Feo says that the Church has seen a significant increase in requests for baptisms for the living and the dead, and for celestial marriage ceremonies and family sealing ceremonies which officially bind couples or families together for eternity. He also believes that many Italian members who moved away because of inadequate ways to practice their faith will return to Italy once the temple is complete.

Shortly after ground was broken for the temple, Rome Mayor, Gianni Alemanno, visited the temple site with Elder José Teixeira of the Quorum of the Seventy. According to a report on the Mormon Newsroom website, Mayor Alemanno, an environmental engineer, "was impressed with the Church’s high construction standards and materials, including the systems employed to manage water consumption, electrical production and the low environmental impact of the temple complex." The full story is available on the Italy Mormon Newsroom website.

During a visit to Europe in the summer of 2014, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, spent some time at the site of the Rome Italy Temple. He commented, "The Rome temple is significant for the Church in Italy, not only for its physical presence but also as a monument to the growth of the Church. For centuries, Rome has been the Christian hub throughout the world."

Early Missionary Work in Italy

Missionaries were sent to Italy in the early years of the Church, during the 1850's. Lorenzo Snow, who became the fifth President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was one of these missionaries.

Shortly after the first Mormons were baptized in Italy in 1850, the Catholic Church demanded that members of the congregation (slightly over 200 converts) emigrate to Salt Lake City. The Italian mission was closed, and permission to preach in Italy was declined by the government in 1900. The Italian government refused to allow the LDS Church to formally gather until 1951. In 1951 Vincenzo di Francesca discovered a charred Book of Mormon in a garbage bin. The cover and title page were missing, and it took him years to find out the identity of the book and achieve baptism into the Church. Italians who had converted outside of Italy returned to the country and joined other Saints there. By 1964, there were just 230 members who were allowed to do missionary work in the country. However, it wasn't until 1965 that the mission re-opened, with permission from the Italian government to proselyte. On 30 July 2012, the Italian government legally recognized Mormonism as a religion in Italy and full "partner of the state." The Prime Minister had given his approval in 2007 but a vote in the affirmative from parliament was still needed.

Construction Proceeds on the Rome Italy Mormon Temple

Per the Mormon Newsroom UK, the temple exterior is being constructed from granite with decorative glazing. The interior finish will be of the finest material and workmanship: marble, woodwork, Venetian plaster, and decorative painting. The three-story temple will be approximately 40,000 square feet with two tall spires when completed. The first phote was taken on 12 December 2016 and the second photo was taken on 29 January 2017. Both photos are the courtesy of the Italy Rome Mission.