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A man and a woman united in matrimony "have a transcendent power to create happiness for themselves, for their family and for the people around them," top Mormon official Henry B. Eyring said Tuesday in an address to a Vatican summit on marriage.

Eyring, first counselor in the governing First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was among more than 300 religious leaders and scholars from across the globe invited to participate in the three-day conference.

The Mormon leader's speech, titled "To Become as One," was largely personal, detailing how his marital union has shaped his views of the institution.

(To view a video of Eyring's speech, click here.)

He fell in love with his wife, Kathleen, after seeing her for the first time at a church meeting in a grove of trees in New Hampshire. The young Eyring, a Harvard doctoral student, was immediately smitten.

"If I could only be with her," he thought to himself, "I could become every good thing I ever wanted to be."

The couple married a year later in an LDS temple, where they vowed fidelity to each other "in this life and for eternity," Eyring said in his address. "The promise included that whatever descendants we might have would be bound to us forever if we lived worthy of that happiness."

Members of the 15 million-member Mormon faith believe their marriage and family relationships can last beyond the grave.

Through five decades of marriage, the births of six children, 31 grandchildren, and — on the day the LDS leader arrived in Rome — a great-grandchild, Eyring said, the two have been "complementary beyond anything I could have imagined."

"Most remarkable to me," he said, "has been the fulfillment of the hope I felt the day I met my wife. I have become a better person as I have loved and lived with her."

The couple grew together "into one — slowly lifting and shaping each other, year by year," he said. "As we absorbed strength from each other, it did not diminish our personal gifts."

The problem with many contemporary marriages is selfishness, which leads to strife and division, he said, while unselfishness breeds "opportunities to help and build each other."

"We must find ways to lead people to a faith that they can replace their natural self-interest with deep and lasting feelings of charity and benevolence," Eyring counseled. "With that change, and only then, will people be able to make the hourly unselfish sacrifices necessary for a happy marriage and family life — and to do it with a smile."

Such altruism is necessary for the world to have "a renaissance of happy marriages and productive families," Eyring said. "Such a renaissance will require people to try for the ideal — and to keep trying even when the happy result is slow to come and when loud voices mock the effort."

As like-minded people work to "build and encourage faithful, loving marriages," the Mormon leader said, "the Lord will multiply our efforts."

Catholic scholar Massimo Introvigne, chairman of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, a body created by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has studied Mormon theology for decades and grasps what Eyring meant by "eternal marriage."

"Only Mormons believe in marriage for eternity in such, I would say, a 'carnal' way, but Catholics confess that they do not know a lot about heaven," Introvigne, a sociology professor at the Pontifical Salesian University, wrote in an email from Italy, "and it is not forbidden to think that we will be reunited with our loved ones."

Most participants at the Vatican meeting would not be bothered by Eyring inserting his LDS beliefs, the Catholic scholar said, since "they do not understand the whole Mormon theological background."

Introvigne sees the pope's opening speech Monday at the colloquium as underscoring the priority of supporting families discussed at the recent Synod on the Family.

"The real fight within the synod was about admitting to Communion some selected and limited categories of remarried [divorced believers]," the Italian said. " ... The question is whether a couple where one of the partners is in his or her second marriage, after several years of faithful attendance of the Mass, can be readmitted to Communion."

The synod also discussed gay marriage, Introvigne said, but no more than two or three bishops suggested any type of acceptance of it, and "certainly not the pope."

"The respectful attitude to homosexual persons is in the 1992 catechism and often reiterated by Francis," he added, "but should not be confused with condoning either homosexual acts or same-sex marriage."

That resembles the Mormon position on same-sex marriage and gay members.

In his Tuesday speech, Eyring quoted guidelines spelled out in "The Family: A Proclamation to the World," issued by the LDS Church in 1995.

"Marriage between man and woman is essential to [God's] eternal plan," it states. "Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity."

The document, which hangs on the walls of many Mormon homes, also notes that "fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners."

Citing statistics gathered by the LDS Church's research division and other scholars, Eyring pointed out that "more than a million" U.S. Mormons pray with their families every day. More than 40,000 families in Mexico read scriptures together one to three times a week. And 70,000 families in Brazil gather two or three times a month for an evening of prayer, worship and scripture reading.

"Those are small numbers when you think of the billions of parents and families that Heavenly Father watches down upon in this world," he said. "But if that family bonding passes through just a few generations, happiness and peace will grow exponentially among the worldwide family of God."

Eyring was invited to Rome to provide a "witness" at the Vatican's international interreligious event called "The Complementarity of Man and Woman."

Though Francis did not attend Eyring's speech, the pope briefly greeted the Mormon leader Monday, marking the highest-level encounter ever between a Catholic pontiff and an LDS general authority.

In the past couple of decades, however, there has been a growing warmth between the two faiths.

In 1992, Mormons were "officially" invited to participate, with other religious groups, in a Vatican-led ecumenical alliance against pornography, said Salt Lake City attorney Michael Homer, honorary Italian consul in Utah. The invitation and subsequent exchanges were viewed as "groundbreaking" because of Mormonism's historical negative stance toward Catholicism.

During this same period, then-LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley presented a set of the five-volume "Encyclopedia of Mormonism" to the Vatican archives, Homer said, "where he was warmly received."

In 2008, the LDS Church announced it would construct a temple in Rome and applied for an "intesa," or official recognition as a religion by Italy, Homer said. There have been even more significant overtures — including a 2009 meeting between Gérald Caussé, now a member of the LDS Presiding Bishopric, and Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

The intesa was granted in 2012, Homer said. "Such encounters are likely to continue, given Mormonism's elevated official status with the Italian state and its shared social positions with the Catholic Church."

Bishop John C. Wester, leader of Utah's 300,000 Catholics, was in Rome for a different meeting Tuesday and did not hear Eyring's remarks. But he applauded the Vatican's efforts to hear from various religious leaders on the topic of marriage.

"It is a great opportunity for different faiths to talk about their teachings," Wester said in a phone interview, and to share their views "of the complementarity of men and women."

The Vatican's gathering on marriage runs through Wednesday.

Twitter: @religiongal