“I practice where I want. Every morning I pray on my own,” Carmela Forino said in the sanctuary room filled with votive offerings, from baby bibs to sports jerseys, left by 2 million an…
The faithful attend a ‘Via Crucis’ at the St. Gabriele dell’Addolorata sanctuary in Isola del Gran Sasso near Teramo in central Italy Friday, July 29, 2023.ISOLA DEL GRAN SASSO, Italy — Two children scribbled petitions to St. Gabriele dell’Addolorata in the vast sanctuary where the young saint is venerated in this central Italian mountain village. Andrea, 6, asked for blessings for his family and pets. Sofia, 9, gave thanks for winning a dance competition.
Elsewhere in deeply secular Western Europe, the “nones” — those rejecting organized religion — are growing fast. In Italy, long considered the cradle of the Catholic faith, most people retain a nominal affiliation, steeped in tradition but with little adherence to doctrine or practice. “The sign of the cross isn’t a quick fly-swatting gesture,” he later preached in Mass. Fewer than two dozen elderly parishioners gathered in a former butcher shop, because Isola’s church was damaged by two earthquakes that have devastated the region of Abruzzo since 2009.“Everything has changed,” said bar owner Natascia Di Stefano, the mother of two teens. “Sunday used to be church with your family. Now youths don’t even want to hear about it, like an ancient thing that’s useless.
From his childhood serving as an altar boy, he misses “the sense of community that formed on Sunday mornings, with the old lady you’d never see otherwise.” Tatulli still finds some of that in gigs with a marching band for the popular feasts of patron saints. Ferri rarely goes to Mass, but has been attending more often the San Gabriele sanctuary after two motorcycle accidents.
She coifs a lot of bridal parties, most still headed to church. Catholic wedding ceremonies remain the choice of about 60% of Italians marrying for the first time. The sacrament is just a bit less popular than church funerals, favored by 70% of Italians, according to Garelli’s research. Such believers should be focused on as if they were the last of the species on Noah’s Ark, joked the Rev. Bernardino Giordano, vicar general of the pontifical delegation to Loreto, another popular sanctuary.
Such an approach might appeal to Federica Nobile, 33, who defines herself as “Catholic but not too much.” Raised by a devout family, she sought to build some distance from their faith to exorcise “the absurd fear of hell” she grew up with.
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From cradle to casket, life for Italians changes as Catholic faith loses relevanceIn small towns across Italy, life has changed over the last generation as the Catholic faith loses relevance in people’s routines and choices.
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From cradle to casket, life for Italians changes as Catholic faith loses relevanceIn small towns across Italy, life has changed over the last generation as the Catholic faith loses relevance in people’s routines and choices. From cradle to casket, the church and its teachings no longer drive daily rhythms. Local parishes have stopped functioning as the towns’ gathering spot, where families congregated each Sunday and youth found extracurricular activities from sports to music that schools rarely provided. As one volunteer at a popular sanctuary put it, those in his generation attend service when they feel like it. For people in their 20s, his son's generation, 'there is a rejection in principle.”
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From cradle to casket, life for Italians changes as Catholic faith loses relevanceIn small towns across Italy, life has changed over the last generation as the Catholic faith loses relevance in people’s routines and choices.
Read more »
Nearly 80% of Italians say they are Catholic. But few regularly go to churchIn Italy, centuries-old churches dot the landscape, sanctuaries and processions draw crowds, and nearly 80% of the population profess themselves Catholic. But to the majority, it's an affiliation in name and tradition, with little adherence to doctrine or practice. Fewer than 20% attend services at least weekly, leaving a handful of elderly parishioners in church pews while young families gather at the next-door bars. Most say they're not hostile to religious practice — just indifferent. For many priests, that attitude means that a point of no return might have been reached in a society that a couple of generations ago still revolved around the church for much social activity.
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Nearly 80% of Italians say they are Catholic. But few regularly go to churchIn Italy, centuries-old churches dot the landscape, sanctuaries and processions draw crowds, and nearly 80% of the population profess themselves Catholic.
Read more »
Nearly 80% of Italians say they are Catholic. But few regularly go to churchIn Italy, centuries-old churches dot the landscape, sanctuaries and processions draw crowds, and nearly 80% of the population profess themselves Catholic.
Read more »