A
Ahimsa
Guest
The Mormons don’t have a Temple in Jerusalem yet, but they’re working on it.There was tenderness and reverence in his voice as Thomas S. Monson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), said the Mormon temple being built in Rome, Italy, “uniquely, is being built in one of the most historic locations in the world, a city where the ancient apostles Peter and Paul preached the gospel of Christ and where each was martyred.”
Monson, considered a prophet by Mormons, addressed millions of members around the world in a biannual satellite broadcast in April. Recalling the Rome groundbreaking on an overcast day in October 2010, attended by Italian senator Lucio Malan and Rome’s vice-mayor Giuseppe Ciardi along with many Italian members of the LDS church, he said that as the choir sang, “one felt as though heaven and earth were joined in a glorious hymn of praise and gratitude to Almighty God. Tears could not be restrained.”
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Latter-day Saint missionaries were present in Italy as early as 1850, a mere twenty years after the Church was first established by Joseph Smith in upstate New York, but it wasn’t until 1965 that missionary work there started in earnest after receiving authorization from the Italian government. Today, there are about 24,000 members in Italy, comprising over a hundred congregations.