ROME -- Home to the Vatican, the pope and St. Peter's Basilica, Rome is unchallenged in its claim to be the global center of the Roman Catholic Church.
But the city also plays host to the largest mosque in western Europe, the largest Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall on the continent, and, as of this year, the biggest center in Europe belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Occupying a 15-acre site near Rome's outer ring road, the enormous temple atop a hill, nearly 10 years in the making, was hard to miss during its construction, arousing the curiosity of Romans, regardless of their faith.
Which may explain why so many Italians -- more than 50,000 -- visited the temple during an extended open house before its formal dedication this month. After that, only church members in good standing will be able to enter, although everyone is welcome on the grounds, officials said.
"It's interesting to discover other faiths; it opens you up to the world," said Antonella Gamberoni, a Rome librarian who visited on a recent afternoon.
In this predominantly Roman Catholic country, members of the church are known as the fresh-faced, clean-cut youths who speak Italian with a distinctly American accent and who are politely (or not) ignored on street corners or when they go knocking door to door to proselytize.
But Gamberoni said she wanted to dig a bit deeper to understand a different set of beliefs better.
"Rome is a universal city, and that's important," she said.
Rome's historical connection to the early apostles Peter and Paul, who are both believed to have died here, was one reason the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was so keen to establish a temple in the city.
"We usually build a temple in a capital city if it is conveniently located for the members," said Alessandro Dini-Ciacci, the official responsible for the church in Italy, which counts about 26,000 members. "Rome had that, plus the added bonus of being a hub of Christianity."
Temples of the church are where three main rites -- baptism, marriage and religious instruction -- are performed, and they are usually designed with a nod to the local culture.
Here, the complex, which includes the temple, a guesthouse and a visitors center, is organized around a landscaped piazza, with a cascading fountain splashing through it.
"In Rome we had to have a big plaza, like the Forum," Dini-Ciacci said.
A decorative pattern throughout the temple is inspired in part by Michelangelo's design for the Piazza del Campidoglio, at the summit of the Capitoline Hill in Rome.
"Italians responded to the Michelangelo motif," said Gordon Walker, one of several Latter-day Saints from the United States who went to Rome to volunteer during the open house. "I spoke to some who told me, 'This is our temple, because it represents Rome.'"
His wife, Carlene Walker, a former Republican member of the Utah state Senate, said the center's chief architect, Niels Valentiner of VCBO Architecture in Salt Lake City, "had taken great pains to make it Italian."
Accustomed to the sensorial spectacle of Rome's churches, many packed with painterly masterpieces by Michelangelo, Raphael and Caravaggio, some Romans may find the temple's understated interior decor wanting.
So some visitors came away less impressed by the design than by the church's family-centric message, which is stressed during the tour.
"There's a strong sense of family, of respect," Maria Giordano said after taking the tour. "We've lost this in Italy."
The new temple, the 13th in Europe, will serve Italy, as well as Malta, Greece, Cyprus, Albania and parts of Romania. A new temple in Lisbon should open this summer, and some three dozen are under construction globally as the church continues to spread its message through its missionary work beyond the United States.
It now has half a million members in Europe and 17 million worldwide. But citing church statistics, some reports suggest that the explosive growth of past decades, particularly in Latin America and West Africa, has slowed in recent years.
In Italy, a first attempt to open a mission, not long after the church's founding in upstate New York in 1830, was short-lived. The church was re-established in Italy in the 1950s, and it has grown from a handful of converts to the current 26,000.
While relations among various Christian denominations aren't always idyllic in a country where as much as 90 percent of the population is Catholic, Dini-Ciacci spoke of positive interactions with the Vatican.
"There is mutual respect, with doctrinal differences," he said.
The Rev. Brian Farrell, secretary of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, went to the temple 019 cq FJ in January and described the visit as an "opportunity to learn something about the history and life of the church."
Farrell said that while "no formal interchurch dialogue" existed, there were "many areas of social ethics and personal morality on which Catholics and Latter-day Saints agree." He added, "In some places, especially in parts of the United States, there are good instances of solidarity and cooperation."
Among the many American volunteers in Rome for the opening, some, like Elliot Nelson, had worked as missionaries in Italy in their youth. When he came 40 years ago, the church was still embryonic, and a far cry from today's outsize temple.
"We hoped and prayed for this for a long time," he said.
Religion on 03/02/2019