Massimo De Feo

Massimo De Feo (born 14 December 1960) has been a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) since April 2016. He is the first Italian national to become a general authority of the LDS Church.^[1]

De Feo was born in Taranto, Italy. He was baptized into the LDS Church at age nine after he met Mormon missionaries. His older brother joined the church with him, but his parents did not. In 1979, De Feo received a diploma in sciences from the Moscati State Scientific School of Taranto. From 1981 to 1983, he was a church missionary in the Italy Rome Mission. From 1984 to 2016, De Feo was employed in Italy by the United States Department of State, working at the American embassy in Rome.

In the LDS Church, De Feo has been a branch president, district president, stake president, and an area seventy. In 2007, while serving as president of the church's Rome Italy Stake, De Feo represented the church in giving a speech to the Scientific Committee of the Interior Ministry of Italy. The Committee was seeking to advise the Italian Council of Ministers on the integration of immigrants in society. De Feo pointed out that about a third of Italian Latter-day Saints were non-European immigrants, and explained language teaching programs and other ways the church sought to integrate immigrants with native born members.^[2] De Feo was also president of the Rome Italy Stake in 2008 when the church announced that the Rome Italy Temple would be built and, while serving in that position, attended its 2010 groundbreaking. He became a general authority seventy at the church's April 2016 general conference.

Notes

References

• "Elder Massimo De Feo", Liahona, May 2016.
• "Elder Massimo De Feo", lds.org.
• Barbie Latza Nadeau, "A Mormon St. Peter's in Rome", The Daily Beast, 28 September 2014.
• "Newly called to Quorums of the Seventy", Church News, 27 April 2013.