Template:Featured Temple
On Saturday, 4 October 2008, during the opening session of the 178th Semiannual General Conference, Thomas S. Monson, then President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, announced the building of a temple in Rome, Italy.
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 Rome Italy Temple will be the first LDS temple constructed in Italy and the 12th temple in Europe. 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. He also said 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.
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Early Missionary Work in Italy
Just three years after the Saints arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, the first missionaries arrived in Genoa, Italy, on 25 June 1850, including Elder Lorenzo Snow, who would become the fifth president of the Church. Over the next three years, 221 people were baptized and organized into three branches. But most proselytizing in Italy stopped in the early 1860s in the face of local opposition and because of a request from Church leaders for Italian members to migrate to Utah. An attempt to reopen missionary work in Italy in 1900 was refused by the government. The Church was finally reestablished in Italy in 1951, following the conversion of Vincenzo di Francesca, who happened to discover a charred copy of the Book of Mormon in a garbage bin. The cover and title page was missing, and it took him years to find out the identity of the book and achieve baptism into the Church. Italians who had joined the Church in other countries began to return to Italy during this period. They attended Church with LDS serviceman stationed in Italy in various branches. By the end of 1964, Church records showed 229 members in Italy. That same year, Elder Ezra Taft Benson, an apostle who would become the 13th president of the Church, petitioned the government for permission to resume missionary work. Permission was granted, the mission was re-opened, and missionaries began to proselyte on 27 January 1965.
Rome Italy Temple Site and Design
The two-spired, three-story, 140-foot Rome Italy Temple is located in northeast Rome near the Grande Raccordo Anulare, the circular road (beltway) that surrounds the city, at Via di Settebagni, 376, just 11 miles from Saint Peter’s Basilica, near the village of La Cinquina Bufalotta. Its architecture was inspired by ancient Rome. Architect Neils Valentiner said, "This had to be one that when you walked onto this site, every person should feel like they were on an Italian site. They would recognize it because of the materials, because of the design, and because of the surrounding." He also stated that the temple’s design was inspired by San Carlino, a Roman Catholic church in Rome. He said, "The curved ceilings, the curved walls, the expression of the colonnades and columns. And that started this very early concept of a curved church, a curved temple, and temple building both on the exterior as well as on the interior."
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. It is part of a religious and cultural center that includes a multifunctional meetinghouse, a visitors’ center, a family history center and housing for visitors. Marble from Italy, Spain, Turkey, and Brazil is being used to decorate the interior and exterior spaces. The exterior finish will be made of Sardo Bianco granite quarried and fabricated in Italy. A charming Italian Villetta, which stood at the highest point of the temple site, was razed to make way for the Rome Italy Temple. The Villetta served for a time as an apartment for the full-time missionaries.
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 that will house digitally reproduced marble replicas of Bertel Thorvaldsen’s renown sculptures of Christus and the Twelve Apostles, a Family History Center, and patron housing.
Rome Italy Temple Groundbreaking Ceremony
President Thomas S. Monson dedicated the temple site on Saturday, 23 October 2010. He was accompanied by Church officials, including Elder William R. Walker, Executive Director of the Temple Department; Erich W. Kopischke, President of the Europe Area and his two counselors, Elder Gérald Caussé and Elder José A. Teixeira; Elder Alfredo L. Gessati, Area Seventy; President Massimo De Feo, Rome Italy Stake President; and President Raimondo Castellani, Bern Switzerland Temple President. Numerous government officials were also in attendance including Mr. Giuseppe Ciardi, vice mayor of Rome, and Senator Lucio Malan.
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."
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.
Church Announces Open House and Dedication Dates
The Rome Italy Temple opened to the public for a free public tour on Monday, 28 January 2019. The open house will run through Saturday, 16 February 2019, excluding Sundays.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced that the Rome Italy Temple will be dedicated on Sunday, 10 March 2019, through Tuesday, 12 March 2019.
Speaking about the temple, President Russell M. Nelson said, "The sacred ordinances performed in this holy temple will unite families for eternity. God loves all His children equally and has provided a way for them to be linked in love, generation to generation. We are thrilled to be able to dedicate a temple in this city replete with historical importance throughout the ages." Of the Rome Italy Temple, the 162nd operating temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the world, Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and chairman of the Temple and Family History Department said, "It is beautiful. The craftsmanship is expert and perfect."
