Five years ago this week, President Russell M. Nelson traveled to Rome, Italy, on March 9-12, 2019 — dedicating the Rome Italy Temple, addressing youth in the temple district and meeting with Pope Francis as the first Prophet to have a formal audience with the head of the Roman Catholic Church.
It was an historic time, which culminated in one historic moment:
During an interview in Rome — the ancient and great city where two millennia ago Peter and Paul preached and died — President Nelson called the dedication of the Rome temple “a hinge point in the history of the Church.”
“Things are going to move forward at an accelerated pace,” said President Nelson. “The Church is going to have an unprecedented future, unparalleled. We’re just building up to what’s ahead now.”
President Nelson, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was also joined by every member of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in Rome, one of the most influential cities in the history of Christianity. The Church leaders stood together on March 11 in the Rome Italy Temple Visitors’ Center for iconic photographs — symbolic of their unified testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ.
After the photographs, President Nelson looked forward with characteristic energy and optimism. The many historic firsts of the weekend were “only the beginning,” he said.
The Church now has 335 temples that are dedicated, announced or under construction. President Nelson has announced 153 of those temples — or 46% of the total temples — during his more than six years as President of the Church.
This week, as the Church celebrated the five-year anniversary of the dedication of the Rome temple, the Church also opened the doors to the new Urdaneta Philippines Temple and the refurbished Manti Utah Temple. Late last year, on Sunday, Sept. 17, 2023, the Church marked the first time three temples were dedicated on the same day — the Brasília Brazil, Bentonville Arkansas and Moses Lake Washington temples. And at the close of October 2022 general conference, President Russell M. Nelson announced 18 new temples, including four in metropolitan Mexico City, Mexico.
Individually, each announcement and dedication of a house of the Lord is remarkable. Collectively, they are a fulfillment of the President Nelson’s prophetic vision that from a “hinge point” in the history of the Church, things would move “forward at an accelerated pace.”
“Let us never lose sight of what the Lord is doing for us now,” said President Nelson in October 2022 general conference. “He is making His temples more accessible. He is accelerating the pace at which we are building temples. He is increasing our ability to help gather Israel. He is also making it easier for each of us to become spiritually refined.”
And he reiterated an assurance he had given before and has given since. “I promise that increased time in the temple will bless your life in ways nothing else can.”
It is a stunning promise.
I glimpsed the blessing the temple can have on generations in Rome in a moment that has gone mostly unheralded.
During a devotional just hours after President Nelson met with Pope Francis and the evening before the dedication of the temple, more than 700 youth gathered on the temple grounds. The chapel in the stake center was standing room only, with youth squished together to see the Prophet.
During the devotional, local members showed a video featuring scenes of Italian youth doing family history work. Then the congregation in the stake center showed President Nelson what they had accomplished.
A sweet and powerful feeling filled the chapel as the youth stood and waved the white family name cards they had prepared to take to the new temple.
For a second or two, everything in the room stopped but the wave of those beautiful white cards. Everyone was quiet. I had to remind myself to breathe. Many leaders cried. Our photographers did not lift their cameras to take a picture.
And then, as we were processing what had happened and how it made each of us feel, the moment was over.
We knew it was a hinge point — a point where current leaders of the Church were glimpsing the power and potential of the future of the Church in Italy. A point when the youth of the Church were glimpsing the blessing the temple would be for their country — and their families.
President Nelson told the youth that everything we believe and every promise God has made to His covenant people come together in the house of the Lord. In an increasingly dark world, the temple and our covenants provide light.
In October 2022 general conference, he explained how those youth, and the rest of us, will tap into those promises as increasing access to temple ordinances and blessings spring from a hinge point in our history.
“Each person who makes covenants in baptismal fonts and temples — and keeps them — has increased access to the power of Jesus Christ,” he said. “Please ponder that stunning truth. The reward for keeping covenants with God is heavenly power — power that strengthens us to withstand our trials, temptations and heartaches better. This power eases our way.”
— Sarah Jane Weaver is executive editor of the Church News.
