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Carole Mikita ReportingAs General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints approaches this weekend, church members are wondering if President Gordon B. Hinckley will announce new temples to be built. The question: could one of them be in France?
Recent announcements have come about temple open houses in both Sacramento, Ca. and Helsinki, Finland, and there has been reporting of a purpose of land in France. Not far from the famed Notre Dame Cathedral is a meetinghouse for hundreds of French Latter-day Saints. For generations now faithful church members have been waiting for their own temple.
Laure Vincent, French Latter-day Saint: "We have been talking about this temple for some years now, sometimes, say 'Ok, that's it, they found the land' or 'No, they haven't.' It's quite a suspense story."
Last summer, President Hinckley was considering a piece of land in a suburb of Paris, called St. Cloud. But now church business managers are negotiating to purchase a tract outside Versailles.
The newspaper 'Le Parisien' says the project has neighbors worried because it's gigantic, about one-third of the small city, Villepreux. The current owners, the Clerico family also owns the Moulin Rouge.
Another issue is the talk of size and cost, between 45 and 50-million dollars. Church Spokesman Dale Bills issued this statement: "We are interested in the property. We are working with the current owners, but no sale has been finalized. Any use of property has not yet been determined. Locations of temples are announced by the president of the Church and he has made no such announcement regarding this site."
The Sordes family in Toulouse can't afford to go very often.
Rudi Sordes, French Latter-day Saint: "We try to go once a year, and I have teenagers and I had the opportunity to be the leader of the youth to go to the temple."
Ground there is close to President Hinckley's heart. In a Paris cemetery rest the graves of American soldiers, including Stanford Hinckley, President Hinckley's eldest brother, who fought and died during World War I.
During his trip to Santiago, Chile earlier this month, President Hinckley mentioned 130 temples; currently 122 are operating. In France, church members hope.
Bruno Kahne, French Latter-day Saint: "The question is, 'Do we have the correct number of people to have a temple?' That's for me, the correct question."
The mayor of Villepreux, where this property is, says of the three parties interested -- an Arab emirate, a Russian or the Mormons -- he prefers the Mormons on two grounds, morality and the quality of the investment. Never has there been any concern about public order with church members, he says.
