Survey finds rates of Catholic identity lagging in Italy

While the majority of Italian adults consider themselves Catholic, only around 15% reported attending weekly Mass, with numbers falling in younger generation.

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A new major study commissioned by the Italian Epsicopal Conference is gauging the state of Catholicism in Italy. While the majority of Italians have held on to their Catholic identity, the report shows that faith practice has fallen significantly in the historically Catholic country.

The data, provided by Zenit, found that Italians still claim a Catholic identity at a rate of 71.1%. Be that as it may, only 15.3% of Italian Catholics reported attending Mass weekly. A plurality of the group reported only occasionally participating in Mass, while the next biggest group (20.9%) consider themselves “non-practicing,” but still Catholic.

Among young Catholics, aged 18 – 34, the numbers fall significantly, with just 58.3% claiming a Catholic identity, and only 10.9% report regularly attending Mass.

The report indicated that nearly 40% of Italian Catholics feel the Church is “too dated,” while a further 27.8% said that the Church did not have “clear direction.” Overall, nearly half of Italian women reported reservations over what they perceive as a “male dominated” atmosphere. Nearly two-thirds of respondents (60.8%) suggested that the Church needs to adapt to the shifting cultural dynamics in order to stay relevant in Italy.

While church attendance is down, more than half of Italian non-practicing Catholics (56.1%) reported continuing to live out their faith in their private lives. Furthermore, two-thirds (66%) of Catholics and even 11.5% of nonbelievers reported praying. However, only 8.8% reported prayer in a liturgical context, with the most common reason for prayer being heightened emotions (39.4%), with prayer during instances of fear just behind at 33.5%.

Belief in an afterlife was also found to coincide with rates of Mass attendance. Overall, only 58% of Italians cited belief in an afterlife, while this portion rose to 87.7% among practicing Catholics.