Elder Quentin Cook (right), one of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, welcomes Archbishop Charles Chaput, Auxiliary Bishop Michael Fitzgerald, fellow archdiocesan priests and other guests at the new Mormon Temple. (Sarah Webb)

The contigent from the archdiocese walks to the temple from the new Mormon community center, located across 17th street, where the group was first welcomed and shown an informational video. The Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul, left, is about a block away.

Elder Quentin Cook (right), one of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, describes the new temple for his archdiocesan visitors. (Sarah Webb)

Archbishop Charles Chaput and other priests and local faith leaders enter the new temple on 17th Street. (Sarah Webb)

The Temple Entry, a kind of lobby on the temple’s first floor, welcomes those who first enter the temple. (Photo by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)

The Temple Baptistry (Photo by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)

An Instruction Room on the temple’s second floor serves as a room for church members to hear words from their scripture and a sermon. The room’s artwork depicts the natural setting of Pennsylvania forests and landscape. (Photo by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)

Another Instruction Room on the third floor of the temple draws the faithful into high contemplation and replaces natural artwork with more ornate architectural flourishes, yet still in the neo-classical Philadelphia style. (Photo by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)

The temple’s Celestial Room on the third floor evokes heaven with its grand chandelier, copious light and high, ornate ceilings and walls. The room is meant for silent prayer by Mormons who have completed instruction in the temple’s other rooms. (Photo by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)

The Brides Room is an area where family members help prepare a bride before her “sealing,” the Mormon wedding ceremony. (Photo by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)

The Sealing Room on the fourth and top floor of the temple is the place where a Mormon couple, and perhaps their children, face each other around a central altar as they proclaim religious vows of love and union with Christ. Chairs for the ceremony’s presiders and family members are also shown. (Photo by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)

(Photo by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)

(Photo by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)