I mean Switzerland is very close to all parts of Italy. Switzerland is a multilingual country. How many people will ever use the Rome temple?

I'm guessing it is for show. There aren't that many Mormons there and, as you said, Switzerland is close and trains are fast and inexpensive.

22,000 Italian mormons, with probably 10,000 active (pretty good rate actually). I'd say 3,000 of those are closer to Bern than Rome. Of the remaining 7,000 I'd say almost half are temple-worthy (very few kids). So, with 3,000 patrons visiting 3 times per year, that's about 30 patrons a day. I've known worse.

Where do the numbers '22,000 Italian mormons' and '10,000' active' come from?

Here's where the number of members in Italy comes from:
http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/rome/

The 10,000 active is an estimate based on my observations as a missionary in Italy. It seemed like just under half of members were active, though my estimate is a flagrant extrapolation.

Admittedly the 30 patrons/day is on the higher side of my estimation, but the tourist factor will probably boost it to about that level.

'Today, Latter-day Saints in Italy total approximately 18,000,'
<LDS Newsroom article dated 2nd April 2011>

30 per day sounds really low ... that's like, one session at best? 3 people per hour (given a ten-hour day?) Or will it likely be one of those part-time temples open only a day or two per week?

Italy is a large country, with the main economy and population centres in the North - closer to Berne than Rome.

Other than that, I can't comment on Kimball's figures

That's closer than driving from Brisbane to Sydney.

However, Brisbane did get a McTemple. If anything, Rome should get a small temple. This is definitely a "me too" deal.

Will it be a time-share temple perhaps?

That is an awesome idea. The church could save tons of money by just sharing with other churches. Ha. What a great idea! Not sure the mormon god shares or works well with others though.

I used to work in Rome, and the chapels were all store-front churches, both in Rome and in the outlying communities. None were pleasant places to go to church, and they are embarrassing to Italians because it's hard to sell a store-front church to people who have some beautiful cathedrals and facilities; it's an issue of credibility. So they talked the whole time about how they were going to buy a property off the beltway so it would be visible, and build a temple and stake center. Of course, Rome didn't have a stake, either, and that was in the process of being created while I was there. The leadership used to say, "You got plenty of people for a stake (about 10% active), but no one pays tithing." I'm not sure how they overcame this, because they did get a stake.

It is a long haul to the Swiss temple, about a 12-hour drive or something for the Romans, way up outside Bern. For the Sicilians. It must be far worse. Italians go up in a coach and stay a few days in temple hostel, so there's no popping in for a session like many do in the states. They should have built it on Sardinia where all the active members are (a strange phenomenon of LDS life in Italy).

I'd like to see how they support the thing, and I'd really like to be on hand to ask nearby Italians what they think of the Stalinist-perpendicular building along the beltway. I hardly new an Italian that was actually "temple worthy." I wonder how many patrons it will have.

Italy (Population approx. 58,000,000) has some 22,600 mormons as of 2008 of whom some 5,658 are active (25%)

http://www.cumorah.com/index.php?target=main&wid=107

Yeah, I guess that less than 4% of the population really needs a temple. /end sarcasm

I think you're off by a couple of decimal places..
18,000 / 58,000,000 is 0.03 percent

If one-third are active that is
0.01 percent

[moved to item below, where it belongs]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/2011 10:00AM by jerry64.

They want to play with the big boys, the Catholics, in their sandbox and show that they are just as important. Yeah, right.

I think that it's partly justified by need, and partly a PR stunt.

build a cathedral across from temple square.

I posted this yesterday..Check out the Cumorah link..
It's all an Illusion for the tithers back home...smoke
and mirrors.



interesting to note that Italy which has 58,000,000

people compared to Norways 4,000,000

gets a temple when Italy has only 5600 active( if that)

http://www.cumorah.com/index.php?target=main&wid=107

In your face Catholics/vatican.. step-aside were coming

whether we have the members or not. At least it looks good

to the Tithers back home - got to keep the Illusion alive

that we are stickin' it to the Man ( pope).

Good point. Of course, to European standards, most Italians do not live "very close" to Bern, and you have to cross the Alps. But I don't reckon the Roman Temple will ever be busy. The Madrid temple is never busy. Yet the Madrid temple already wasn't busy when they decided to build one in Lisbon. The cult seems to think "if you build it, they will come". Not!

BTW, does anybody know a single temple in Europe that is ever busy?

A missionary I served with sat me and a few others down one night in 07 to tell us some amazing things happening in italy. His father was the MP of the rome mission or one of the major missions around there and helped work in getting land bought for the church. The land the church got was a major thing because not only was the land very choice, but the difficulty of getting that much land from the vatican was extremely difficult. The missionary told us that they were going to be building a temple in rome when all the required permits were taken care of and in the future a potential mecca of church stuff, including an MTC. We were all bound with the promise of silence over all of this and told that because of how delicate the dicussions were in getting the required permission for the temple in rome we should never mention or repeat it to anyone. Sure enough, in time the temple was announced.

I remember thinking... hmmm looks more like a PR type of stunt. "Hey look at us, we just put a temple in one of the greatest theocratic empires and religious centers of the world. Now you have to take us seriously, recognize our growth and power and respect us." A huge selling point to this temple and all the land bought was the image it could bring to the church, and potentially making Italy thrive with church growth, so that what it was for the catholic church it could become for the Mormon church. It sure got the desired effect of ohhh ahhhhh among TBMs at conference.

I doubt they are going to build within Vatican City itself, so they would not have to buy land from the vatican. The Catholic Church doesn't own all the land in the city of Rome, but I can believe that dealing with the Roman equivalent of the city planning commission would be difficult for any use change and more so for building a non-Catholic church.

Ya details on who the church purchased the land from were a bit foggy, you are probably right, though somehow the catholic church was specifically mentioned and involved. I would have to go find my mission journal for the specific details and I have no idea where it is.