A recent study by research company Censis for the Italian Bishops’ Conference reveals that, while 71% of Italians identify as Catholic, fewer than half attend church regularly and individualistic approaches to faith are on the rise. The report, released just before Italy’s first Synodal Assembly, highlights a shifting landscape in Italy’s religious practices and challenges Read more
Italy’s new right-wing government has submitted a $35 billion budget plan to the country’s parliament last week, without a controversial proposal from one of the parties that compose the governing majority to subsidise marriages in the Catholic Church. Read more
Like most of his fellow Italians, Mattia Nanetti, 25, from the northern city of Bologna, grew up with the teachings and sacraments of the Catholic Church in parochial school. Even his scouting group was Catholic. But in September 2019 he decided the time had come to leave the church behind. He filled out a form Read more
The president of Italy has awarded a Catholic priest Italy’s highest honour for civil valour. Fr. Roberto Malgesini (51) who was stabbed to death near Lake Como last month, was known for his care for the homeless and migrants in the northern Italian Diocese of Como. He was killed near his parish by one of Read more
According to Italy’s national statistics institute, Italy is likely to see a significant decline in the number of babies born in the period following the COVID-19 pandemic. In their 2020 annual report, Istat, Italy’s national statistics institute, predicted that the climate of uncertainty and fear caused by the coronavirus may result in 10,000 fewer births Read more
Staff at the Pope John XXIII hospital in Bergamo — once the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy — announced they had no more patients with coronavirus in their intensive care unit. After 137 days of trying to keep critically ill patients alive, staff gathered July 8 for a moment of silence to remember Read more
Italian authorities on Thursday (May 7) gave the go-ahead for public Masses starting May 18, after the government and Catholic bishops struggled to find an accord that would ensure safety measures amid the coronavirus pandemic. A protocol allowing Catholic faithful to attend Mass was signed Thursday by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte; the president of the Read more
Italy’s bishops’ conference is demanding the government lift its ban on public Masses now the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown is being eased. On Sunday, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced a gradual resumption of normal life in Italy. To date, COVID-19 has led over 26,000 deaths in Italy and infected almost 200,000. For the meantime, Prime Minister Read more
Industrial-scale deaths and funerals have fallen to Father Mario Carminati’s lot since the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic took hold in Italy. Clusters of coffins arrive every day and are laid on the floor of St. Joseph’s Church in the northern Italian town of Seriate. “Authorities didn’t know where to put the coffins,” Carminati says. When enough Read more
As Italy’s coronavirus crisis continues, four small towns in the southern Italian province of Salerno have been placed under quarantine due to an outbreak of the pandemic that reportedly originated in a spiritual retreat led by the Neocatechumenal Way, one of the “new movements” in the Catholic Church. The Feb. 29-March 1 retreat held in Read more