Italy is post-Christian, according to the Milanese Catholic monthly magazine Il Timone, citing its own research that shows, among other things, that more than 37 percent of the inhabitants of this country are considered unbelievers.
Commenting on the revealed data, another Italian newspaper, Il Giornale, laments that “the presence of the Vatican (on Italian soil – ed.) and the fact that our country is widely regarded as the cradle of Christianity are not enough.”
Participation in Holy Mass and Confession
A study by the monthly magazine in collaboration with the research center Euromedia Research by Dr. Alessandra Ghisieri found that only 13.8 percent. of all Italians, most of whom are elderly, attend church regularly. Of those who consider themselves believers, only 33 percent say they go to church at least once a month and confess at least once a year, while 32% do not know what the Eucharist is, and it is a sacrament instituted by the Lord Jesus at the Last Supper.
No less worrying, especially for the future of the Church, are other data. For example, less than 60% of practicing Catholics know what confession is, and 66%. of this group do not confuse or know the term “resurrection of the body”, and 20 percent. believes that sin is “simply evil done to other people”.
On ethical issues ranging from abortion to same-sex “marriage”, practicing Catholics hold essentially “secular” views, but there is some opposition within that community to “surrogacy” (hiring women to bear children to married couples who cannot have children) and legalizing drugs.
96 percent of Italians pray almost every day
Praying remains a common practice – one in five believers say they pray every day and 96 percent. he does it almost as often. 70 percent of regular churchgoers believe in the existence of the devil.
The above data are comparable to those of the sociological survey announced in 2021 by the Italian Episcopal Conference, 25 years after the publication in 1995 of the study “Religiousness in Italy”. In this case, too, it indicated a decrease in attendance at Holy Mass. once a week by 31.1 percent. to 22 percent, so in the period 1995-2020 (the last year before the corona pandemic) it fell by 9 percent. According to the monthly, participation in Sunday liturgy is becoming “increasingly reflective, meditative and thus problematic.” But even in these studies, prayer remained an important factor.
Source: Do Rzeczy
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