Sore Thumb?
Posted on 09/30/2014 11:31:35 AM PDT by greyfoxx39
A Mormon St. Peter’s in Rome
A new Latter-day Saints temple looms large on the Roman horizon, and the Vatican’s prelates, truth to tell, are not too enthusiastic about what they see.
ROME, Italy — On the outskirts of Rome along the ancient Catholic pilgrim route known as the Via Francigena and not far from a giant shopping center featuring a massive IKEA and the French do-it-yourself Mecca called Leroy Merlin, cranes are hoisting giant spires onto the top of a Baroque-revival-style church. But unlike most of the religious edifices erected in Catholic Rome, this Roman temple is being built by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) of Italy to accommodate a congregation that has grown from 9,000 to nearly 30,000 followers in less than 30 years.
The Rome Temple Complex of the LDS 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. The grounds will also include a stake center meeting house (a stake being roughly similar to a Catholic diocese), a visitor center, a family history library and a special Mormon-only hotel for workers and worshippers.
The temple, which is expected to be inaugurated sometime next year, is the 12th temple built in Europe and the first ever in Italy, and it is one of 15 new temples currently being built worldwide by the growing Mormon church. Organizers say that while it is under construction the Roman temple will be open briefly to the public for guided tours to help encourage understanding, then it will be closed to all but church members except under special circumstances.
The temple is serving a demand by Italian Mormons, according to local Rome Stake President Massimo De Feo, who says worshippers currently travel to the nearest temple in Bern, Switzerland, if they wish to do temple work which is an integral component of Mormon worship. The cost of the temple is a tightly held secret. “We have paid for it out of our pocket, with no help from Italy,” LDS Rome spokesman Alessandro Dini Ciacci says. “We don’t divulge the specific costs of our operations.”
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. According to De Feo, the Italy church has seen a surge 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 once the temple is ready. He also predicts that many Italians who have moved away because of inadequate ways to practice their faith will move back now that there is a temple in Italy. “This new Mormon center, the largest in Europe, will certainly be a problem.”
The growth of the LDS church in Italy may be moving fast, but not without opposition. Shortly after the first Mormons were baptized in Italy in 1850, the Catholic Church demanded that members of the congregation emigrate to Salt Lake City. The Italian government refused to allow the LDS church to formally gather until 1951. By 1964, there were just 230 members who were allowed to do missionary work in the country, and it took until July 30, 2012, for Italy’s government to finally legally recognize LDS as a religion in Italy and full “partner of the state.”
"According to Massimo De Feo, president of the Rome stake, the construction of the temple is nothing short of a miracle, not least of because of the way the project, which will be the largest in Europe, has raised eyebrows in Catholic circles.
“Certainly the Mormon Church is very rich and they have substantial resources that come from the United States,” said Cardinal Elio Sgreccia, emeritus president of the Pontifical Academy for Life and a close adviser to the last three popes, at a recent public forum on interreligious dialogue. “It is not a sin to have economic resources, but for an ecumenism, this new Mormon center, the largest in Europe, will certainly be a problem.”
“The good news is certainly the fact that the construction of this new temple has created new jobs, and this is a good that comes from their wealth,” said Sgreccia. “As for ecumenism, dialogue and the search for unity among all Christians, their presence in Rome is not necessarily an uplifting factor. We shall wait and see.”
Mormons aren’t dangerous to the Catholic faith, says Monsignor Enrico Feroci, head of Rome’s Caritas. “Everyone has the right to make their own choices of faith and take the necessary measures, from building their headquarters to professsing their faith,” he says. “But for Catholics, this does not mean renouncing its principles and pillars upon which rests the 2,000 years from their faith in Christ, Son of God, who died and rose again for the salvation of humanity. I have a lot of respect for Mormons in Rome, but they certainly do not share the Gospel with us because their concepts and the way they operate in society differ so greatly to Catholics.”
The Mormon religion is the 10th-largest in Italy after Catholicism, well behind Islam (the fourth after Catholicism) and Judaism (the sixth-largest), but it is the fastest growing, and the construction of the new house of worship will surely draw many whose faith guides them to live close to a temple. “This is a day of thanksgiving,” De Feo said when Thomas S. Monson, the head of the universal church, broke ground in Rome in 2010. “I think this is the most beautiful temple in the world.”
Reaching the Nations: International Lds Church Growth Almanac, 2014 Edition, Volume I [Kindle Edition]
Reaching the Nations: International Lds Church Growth Almanac, 2014 Edition, Volume I
Breakdown of percentage of active members;
Canada – 187,982 60,000 to 65,000 active, 33-36%
USA – 6,321,416 2.5 million active, 40% Aruba – 516 150 active, 32%
Bahamas – 959 no estimate of activity
Barbados – 844 200 active, 30%
Belize – 4,240 between 700 and 900, 20-25% active
Costa Rica – 41,343 between 6000 and 7000, 17-20% active
Curacao – 572 100, 20% active
Dominica – 140 no estimate
Dominican Republic – 124,435 20,000 to 25,000, 18-22%
El Salvador – 114,674 “likely no higher than 30,000 active”
French Guiana – 362 around 120, 35-40% active
Grenada – 305 80, 40% active
Guadeloupe – 470 200, 45% active
Guatemala – 239,734 40,000, 20% active
Guyana – 5,415 1,000, 20% active
Haiti – 18,165 4,000 to 5,000, 30% active
Honduras – 154,207 22,000 to 25,000, 15 to 20% active
Jamaica – 5,580 1,500, 25% active
Martinique – 199 75-90, 40-45% active
Mexico – 1,317,700 250,000 to 300,000, 20-25% active
Nicaragua – 80,605 10,000, 16% active
Panama – 48,669 6,500, between 11-14% active
Puerto Rico – 21,714 3,500, between 17-20% active
Saint Lucia – 261 150, 70% active
Saint Vincent/Grenadines – 540 180, 40% active
Suriname – 1,323 350, 33% active
Trinidad and Tobago – 3,058 1,000, 40% active
St. Thomas – 586 150, 25% active
Argentina – 412,095 70,000, 18-20% active
Bolivia – 182,964 30,000 to 40,000, 18-25% active
Brazil – 1,209,974 250,000 to 300,000, 25% active
Chile – 577,716 70,000, 12% active
Colombia – 180,526 33,000 to 35,000, 20% active
Ecuador – 211,165 40,000, 20% active
Paraguay – 84,806 12,000-15,000, 15-20% active
Peru – 527,759 100,000, 20% active
Uruguay – 99,759 17,000, 18% active
Venezuela – 157,795 25,000, 17% active
Austria – 4,385 1,000 to 1,250, 25-30% active
Belgium – 6,186 1,500, 25% active
Denmark – 4,376 1,500, 35% active
Finland – 4,745 1,500 to 1,800, 33-40% active
France – 36,968 8,000, 22-25% active
Germany – 38,739 9,000-11,000, 25-30% active
Iceland – 265 90-100, 40% active
Ireland – 3,013 1,000, 35% active
Italy – 24,970 6,000, 25% active
Luxembourg – 336 100, 35% active
Malta – 159 30, 20% active
Netherlands – 9,247 2,500, 30% active
Norway – 4,556 1,500, 35% active
Portugal – 40,941 4,500-5,000, 11-13% active
Spain – 50,049 10,000-12,000, 22-26% active
Sweden – 9,404 2,600, 30% active
Switzerland – 8,456 3,100, 40% active
United Kingdom – 188,462 30,000, 15-20% active
Ping
It’s shocking to think Italians would fall for this. Haven’t these people read the Bible?
From the statistics on mormon activity in Italy, I don't see very many Italians falling for this.
It’s shocking to think Italians would fall for this. Haven’t these people read the Bible?
What a deal!
For any Mormons out there...look up the purpose of a laver in OT temples and see if that compares to the purported explanation given by SLC.
Also, would be interested in why the temple "works" clearly contradict what is written in the BoM with regards to baptisms for the dead...
“Those Saints who neglect [temple work] in behalf of their deceased relatives, do it at the peril of their own salvation.”
A key function of temples is to perform ordinance work for our deceased ancestors. When we think of temple ordinances and the necessity to do them perfectly, without error...“… For their salvation is NECESSARY AND ESSENTIAL TO OUR SALVATION...they without us cannot be made perfect—NEITHER CAN WE WITHOUT OUR DEAD BE MADE PERFECT” (D&C 128:5, 15;...).
So, what's in store for those who don't get into a temple, to perform these "sacred ordinances"? What becomes of them? Afterall, D&C is quite clear on the matter. they cannot be made "perfect" which equates to the purported "celestial kingdom".
Are ALL of your ancestors accounted for? Have they ALL had the "ordinances" done for them?
I doubt it, which places any mormon's salvation in jeopardy according to D&C.
But here's another example of the contradictions within Mormonism. A contradiction between what JS supposedly received as revelation and the the BoM. [“The most correct book on earth.©"] Baptism for the dead, which, according to Mosiah, "...is mockery before God...".
But it is mockery before God, denying the mercies of Christ, and the power of his Holy Spirit, and putting trust in dead works. (Moroni 8:22-23)
Wherefore, he has given a law; and where there is no law given there is no punishment; and where there is no punishment there is no condemnation; and where there is no condemnation the mercies of the Holy One of Israel have claim upon them, because of the atonement; for they are delivered by the power of him. For the atonement satisfieth the demands of his justice upon all those who have not the law given to them, that they are delivered from that awful monster, death and hell, and the devil, and the lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment; and they are restored to that God who gave them breath, which is the Holy One of Israel. (2 Nephi 9:25-26)
And these are those who have part in the first resurrection; and these are they that have died before Christ came, in their ignorance, not having salvation declared unto them. And thus the Lord bringeth about the restoration of these; and they have a part in the first resurrection, or have eternal life, being redeemed by the Lord. And little children also have eternal life. But behold, and fear, and tremble before God, for ye ought to tremble; ....(Mosiah 15:24-27)
Sore Thumb?
” the Italy church has seen a surge 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”
All cultic, non-Biblical nonsense.
Looks like a Warren Jeffs creation.
I feel sorry for the people who are led astray. I have no doubt some of them want to be faithful to God but they don’t look any further than what is laid out in front of them by the LDS.
How do we reach out to them?
No coffee? No wine?
Good luck with that in Rome! :)
It’s shocking to think Italians would fall for this. Haven’t these people read the Bible?
If they did, they would be neither Catholic or Mormon.
But it is mockery before God, denying the mercies of Christ, and the power of his Holy Spirit, and putting trust in dead works. (Moroni 8:22-23)
This verse has nothing to do with temple work. It has to do with “faith without works is dead, being alone...” -James 2 (kjv) or Hebrews 6:1
Also, why did you interpret a clear statement that says if one neglects temple work, their salvation is at risk to mean that those who don’t do it ALL will lose their salvation. Looks like a very narrow interpretation or even a straw man argument.
Jesus also commanded us to be perfect even as our father in heaven is perfect. Nobody except Christ can do that and the rest of us have to allow Christ to perfect us through his blood. But, that doesn’t mean we get to ignore his commandments because they are impossible for us to keep. In other words, we all neglect Christ’s commandments and risk salvation uses we repent through his blood.
Agreed. “Fastest growing” is a such a foolish statistic.
A religion with 1 follower adds 3 more and its membership has quadrupled. Yet numerically they don’t matter a hill of beans.
I just keep pointing out the inconsistencies in their doctrine and teachings...
At some point, those who are willing will leave...but for many, it’s also their social network and with the “non-existent” shunning, many are afraid of losing friends and in some cases, family.
Unfortunately, many who leave become anti-theists as a result of the inculcation of “this is the only true church” during their formative years, and as a result of finding out they had been lied to, they shun any and all religion.
Some may just become “inactive” or go through the basic motions even though they have spiritually “left” the church in order not to upset any balance within their families.
It is the rare bird that flies the coop and goes on in their search of Jesus Christ and the saving grace of his sacrifice.
The Rome Temple Complex of the LDS 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. The grounds will also include a stake center meeting house (a stake being roughly similar to a Catholic diocese), a visitor center, a family history library and a special Mormon-only hotel for workers and worshippers.
Now this could get interesting.
Nice. What's your background, sunshine? English?
What is most shocking is that they appear to not have an architecture planning and approval board. That is indeed a shocking and amateur approach to building. They are all cookie cutter buildings and are atrocious.
And the sheeple....with their eyes glazed over do not know the difference.
The "faithful" will very likely see this as being superior to the Italian works...."speshul" by its very ugliness, not copies of Christian buildings. "Set apart"...a good old mormon term. I just wonder what the Italian response will be to the statue of mormoni on the top.
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