Catholic population drops to 58% of Italian total
August 10, 2023
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CWN Editor's Note: Veteran Vatican journalist Sandro Magister observes that while Pope Francis is saying that the doors of churches should always be open to everyone, in practice “the churches are emptying out.”
Citing recent studies, Magister notes that “today only 58.4% of Italian citizens over the age of 18 identify themselves as “Catholics,” as opposed to the 37 percent who are “non-believers.”
The number of Italians attending Mass on Sunday is much lower: 13.8% of the overall population. And surveys show that most of those people are older adults, with even lower rates of attendance among the young.
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