Avignon: this ancient history affects us now

 

As we were compiling summaries about Church units in France, I found this reference to Avignon, a small city in southern France.

A scholar in Utah* noted an amazing global trend, and he wrote a paper in 2008, documenting these changes. He started by referring to this 700-year-old castle in Avignon.

Papal Palace in Avignon, France
Home to Catholic popes in the 14th century.

Over 700 years ago, a pope named John XXIII cruelly tortured and killed anyone who proposed reformations to the Catholic church. Centuries later, another pope also named John XXIII convened a council, stating he felt moved by the Holy Spirit to review and reverse that thinking. In 1965 they announced what is now called Vatican II, which promised freedom of religious belief.

The author presents a timeline showing that the 1965 Vatican II announcement was a critical turning point in world history. In the years that followed, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was allowed to open missions in many countries where it had been restricted or forbidden. The growth of the church in predominantly Catholic countries greatly accelerated after 1965.

Here are some of the trends he documented [and note that 17 years have passed since he wrote this, so the trends are even more dramatic now]:

• The Italian mission was opened in 1966, the first stake there was created in 1981.
• In 1968 the Church was officially recognized in Spain, the first mission was organized in 1970 and the first stake was created in 1982.
• Average Church growth worldwide in the first 135 years (1830-1965) was 17,748 members per year. In the forty years after 1965 the average was 257,096, fourteen times greater.
• In 1968 Elder Thomas Monson was assigned to supervise European missions. That year he promised East German saints behind the Iron Curtain “If you will remain true and faithful to the commandments of God, every blessing any member of the Church enjoys in any other country will be yours.” The Freiberg Temple was dedicated in East Germany in 1985, two years before the Frankfurt Temple in West Germany.
  
  

  
  
• David Kennedy was appointed to the US Secretary of the Treasury from 1968-1972 and was a U.S. Ambassador-at-Large, visiting almost every nation on earth until 1974. At that time he was called by Pres Spencer Kimball as a special representative of the First Presidency. With global contacts he had already made, he helped establish church recognition in many countries, including Portugal and Poland.
  
  
• The areas of Central America and the Caribbean had 14,577 members in 1965. In the 40 following years, the total had increased to 729,000, almost 50 times higher.
• Mexico had 12,695 members in 1960, and over 1 million by 2007, increasing 87 times.
• South American members totaled 50,000 in 1965, and over 3 million by 2007.
• In 1965, there were 794 members in all of the Philippines. After a mission was created there in 1967, the church membership had multiplied 750 times to 594,655 by 2007.
• 
  Current home of Avignon Branch
  Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

P.S. Of course we can't forget the famous Bridge at Avignon
in the children's song known by every French student

[click to enlarge]

(Yes the bridge really does stop part way across the Rhône River.
It works for tourists to dance on,
but does not work as a real bridge to anywhere😊)

 *Source: Glimpses: through David's window at Avignon : a comparative study of events that have contributed to the phenomenal growth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. By John D. Smith, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2008.

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