Italy

Increased Religious Diversification

According to the latest statistics, Catholicism has preserved its monopolistic hold over the population, with 90% of Italians having been baptized in the Roman Church. Yet a major element of diversification has come from the recent wave of immigration. Of the 2.6 million immigrants, 50.3% are Christians (18.5% Orthodox; 25.6% Catholics, 4.5% Protestants, and 1.7% other Christians), 32.4% (824,342) of the recent immigrants are Muslims, and 17.4% belong to other religions, mostly Buddhists and Hindus, or have no religion (about 11%). The most striking novelty is the presence of Islam, which is now the second religion in Italy and is rapidly developing an important institutional network. There are now more than 200 mosques in the peninsula and four Muslim associations catering to the religious, educational, cultural, and social needs of the community. And in 2005, the Council for Italian Islam was formed in agreement with the state authorities.

A factor of diversification within Christianity has come from the increasing number of Protestants and new religious movements. After the merger with the 6,000 Methodists in 1981, the Waldensian Church now has 30,000 members, which together with other small groups (Baptists, Brethren) puts the number of “historic Protestants” at about 60,000. Their numbers are dwarfed by those of the “new Protestants,” which have developed thanks to the intense missionary work of evangelical and Pentecostal denominations. More than 0.5 million Italians belong to these groups, with the Assemblies of God being the largest with 400,000 members. As for the Jehovah's Witnesses, they are the largest “new” religious group, with nearly 500,000 members.

While the Jewish religion remains a small presence with about 30,000 members, the growth of Buddhism among Italian-born believers (95,000 members) and the development of various New Age and Human Potential groups (100,000 members) have also contributed to the growing religious pluralism of Italian society.

Despite the strong hold of Catholicism over the Italian population, for the first time in its history, the Roman Church is confronted with the presence in the country of more than 2.5 million “other Christians” and more than 1 million non-Christians according to the survey carried out by the Catholic Charity Caritas/Migrantes in 2004.

Do-It-Yourself Catholicism

The diversification of the religious landscape is also the result of changes within the dominant faith. Indeed, following similar trends at work in most advanced Western countries, from the 1960s onward, Italians have tended to exercise a more individualized and autonomous judgment as far as their religious beliefs and practice are concerned. Indeed, observers such as Arnaldo Nesti have stressed the Italian paradox of a strong cultural attachment to Catholicism combined with an almost generalized refusal to conform to official Church teaching and discipline.

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