With the ceremony livestreamed in Spanish, Catalan, French and English, ground was broken for the Barcelona Spain Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Saturday, Sept. 19.
Elder James W. McConkie III — a General Authority Seventy and member of the Europe Central Area presidency — presided over the ceremony. “I hope that you can see and feel in the temple heaven and earth intersect,” he said.
Planned as the Church’s second temple in Spain, the sacred edifice will be built in the northeast of the country, about 60 miles from France. Barcelona is located within Catalonia, an autonomous community of Spain.
Approximately 500 community members, Latter-day Saints, religious leaders and nongovernmental organization leaders attended the groundbreaking in person. Also in attendance was Josep Maria Vallès, the mayor of Sant Cugat del Vallès, the municipality where the temple will be built.
Photos from the groundbreaking were also published Sept. 19 on the Church’s Spain and Europe Newsrooms.
Quoting the 1836 dedicatory prayer of the Kirtland Temple, Elder McConkie said that members of the Church through tithes and offerings “have given of [their] substance to build a house to [God’s] name, that the Son of Man might have a place to manifest himself to his people” (Doctrine and Covenants 109:5).
Elder McConkie added: “In temples, Jesus intends to directly engage His people. It’s a truth so specific, so personal, so intentional, so filled with love and interest that every time I read it, I am overwhelmed. It is a truth that puts Jesus Christ at the center of every temple built and used throughout the world. It is a truth that declares the reality of Jesus Christ and that He Himself intends to be present in the lives of those that follow Him.”
Covenants are “deeply personal and spiritually powerful,” he said, explaining that God blesses and binds Himself to those who choose to make and honor covenants.
“How grateful we are to be invited into God’s home, and that there we can make sacred covenants and personally experience the reality of His Son.”
In his dedicatory prayer on the temple site and construction process, Elder McConkie acknowledged “the spiritual preparation and covenant discipleship” of the local members. He prayed: “Be with them as they continue to prepare spiritually for a house of the Lord in their midst. Bless them in their discipleship.”
He added his plea for the duration of the construction phase: “Let each and every person that contributes to this effort know and feel the heavenly importance of this project.”
About the Barcelona temple, the Church in Spain
On April 3, 2022, then-Church President Russell M. Nelson announced this temple for Barcelona, Spain. He identified 17 new temples in April 2022 general conference, bringing the number of temples he had announced to that point to 100.
The Barcelona temple is planned as a single-story building of approximately 27,500 square feet. Also planned for the grounds are patron housing, an arrival center and a distribution center.
This temple will be built on a 5.4-acre site northeast of the intersection of Avinguda de la Vía Augusta and Avinguda de la Clota in Sant Cugat del Vallès, north of Barcelona.
Spain currently has only one operating house of the Lord — the Madrid Spain Temple, dedicated in 1999. The Barcelona temple is the only other temple currently announced for the country.
Around 72,000 Latter-day Saints live in Spain, meeting in about 150 wards and branches.
The Church’s first converts in Spain were baptized during the 1950s and 1960s. In October 1968, the Church became legally recognized in Spain. On June 6, 1969, four missionaries arrived from the North Argentine Mission to begin missionary work in Madrid.
The Spain Mission was officially organized on July 1, 1970, and later renamed the Spain Madrid Mission in 1974. The first Spain meetinghouse built by the Church was dedicated on July 10, 1977, in Madrid, and the country’s first stake was also created in Madrid on March 14, 1982.
This year marks the 50th anniversary since the Spain Barcelona Mission was organized — back on May 8, 1976.
