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137
10.Social Indicators of Secularization in Italy
Silvia Sansonetti 
Introduction
S
ecularization is a multidimensional and complex social process. e CriticaLiberale Foundation and the CGIL (the largest Italian trade union) SezioneNuovi Diritti have jointly sponsored research on the secularization process in Italy since 2005. e results, which are presented in this paper, have been publishedyearly in a special volume called
Quaderno Laico
of the Critica Liberale, theFoundation’s review, together with the complete data-base.
1
  As a recent study has confirmed, Italy is a predominantly Catholic country.
2
 anks to this religious homogeneity, exploring the secularization process in thecountry does not require making distinctions among different groups withinthe nation. Various social indicators concerning the Italian population coveringthe 14 years 1991-2004 are analyzed here including demography, health, andeducation, as well as participation in Catholic religious rites, public financing of religious groups, and statistics of the Italian Catholic Church and its organizations.e aim of this chapter is to juxtapose results and indicators from various studiesand to reinterpret them from the point of view of the secularization process. esources of the data are: the Vatican State (which publishes a statistical yearbook),the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), the Italian Institute for Statistics (Istat),the Italian Department for Education, and the Italian Department for Healthand its research institute (Istituto Superiore di Sanità).
3
 
Public Religious Practice and Religious Affiliation
Before presenting results regarding public religious practices and religiousbelonging in Italy, it is worth clarifying the relation between the sense of religious belonging and religious practice. is issue has been widely debated
 
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S
ECULARISM
, W
OMEN
&
 THE
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 TATE
: T
HE
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EDITERRANEAN
W
ORLD
 
IN
 
 THE
21
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ENTURY
among scholars. Some have argued that religious practice does not necessarily follow a sentiment of belonging, since the practice may aim at gaining somesocial advantage. On the other hand, empirical studies have shown that practiceand the sense of belonging are deeply interlaced. is is the case especially inadvanced societies where religion has lost its value as a formal convention. Forthis reason, religious practice is commonly adopted as a key indicator of religiousbelonging, although it should be considered together with other indicatorsconcerning the choices, behaviors, and beliefs of individuals.Religious practice can be of two different kinds: the visible and the invisible.Visible practice consists of rites celebrated in public and for this reason it is alsodefined as public practice. Invisible practice concerns activities such as praying which take place in the private sphere. e first type can be studied by observingparticipation in public rites; in this case data collection can be carried outindirectly. In the second case, the investigation can be carried out only directly  with individuals, using qualitative (interviews) as well as quantitative methods(questionnaires).Here only the public practice is analyzed, more specifically, participationin rites of passage: baptism, first communion, confirmation, and marriage (seeFigure 10-1). By and large, participation in life cycle rites has decreased in Italy during the years 1991-2004. e percentage of children aged one or less whohave been baptized of the total children born alive in a year fell from 89.9% in1991 to 77.5% in 2004. Two factors may explain this fall. One is the contributionof non-Catholic immigrants to the birth rate. However, the influence of thisfactor is small.
4
Secondly, the phenomenon may be related to a new attitude of Italian parents towards baptism. In the past, the rite was considered of an urgentcharacter due to the belief that children who died without being baptized— who are bearers of original sin—would have been left for eternity in purgatory.Nowadays, this belief seems in decline and Catholic parents delay the rite so thatthe number of children baptized after age one is increasing as well as are baptismsamong adults. Furthermore, the Church, after more than seven centuries, hasreconsidered this issue.
5
 e first communion rate (per thousand) and the confirmation rate (perthousand) of Italian Catholics diminished during 1991-2004: communionsfrom 9.9 to 8.4 and confirmations from 11.1 to 8.6. ese decreases were partly influenced by the aging of the Italian population, since rates are computed for theentire population, but they also represent symptoms of a decrease in religiosity.e percentage of Concordat
6
marriages among all marriages registered by the Italian state—i.e. concordat and civil marriages—is constantly decreasing: in1991 it was 82.5% and in 2004 it was 68.8%. is trend suggests that public
 
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10.S
OCIAL
I
NDICATORS
 
OF
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ECULARIZATION
 
IN
I
 TALY
Figure 10-1
Public Religious Practice 1991-2004
IndicatorsYears
% children agedless than 1 baptized / children born inthe yearFIRST COMMUNIONRate per thousandCatholicsCONFIRMATIONRATERate per thousandCatholicsMARRIAGES
 
% concordatmarriages/ totalmarriages
1991
89.93% 9.93% 11.07% 82.53%
1992
86.42% 12.95% 10.97% 81.75%
1993
87.61% 9.34% 10.61% 82.09%
1994
89.41% 9.23% 10.25% 80.93%
1995
89.73% 9.17% 10.12% 80.02%
1996
85.81% 8.86% 9.27% 79.64%
1997
86.19% 9.05% 9.05% 80.68%
1998
89.21% 8.96% 9.11% 78.64%
1999
86.63% 8.99% 8.97% 77.03%
2000
85.34% 8.9% 8.78% 75.58%
2001
83.74% 8.57% 8.5% 73.16%
2002
82.15% 8.66% 8.52% 71.86%
2003
80.68% 8.52% 8.69% 71.46%
2004
77.46% 8.43% 8.56% 68.83%
Source: Quaderno Laico, 2007
religious practice has continuously decreased in Italy during the 1990s.
7
isresult contrasts with higher figures on the frequency of religious service attendancein Italy reported by other researchers.
8
However, rates of participation in rites of passage are often a better indicator of the degree or depth of the secularizationprocess.
Family and Family Planning
Deep changes in how Italians experience their intimate lives can be observedfrom other indicators concerning family life choices such as cohabitations,separations, divorces, abortions, the adoption of contraceptive methods—allissues that challenge the Catholic ideal of “natural” family.
9
e absolute numberof cohabitations
10
is increasing, according to survey estimates by the NationalInstitute for Statistics, from 207,000 in 1993 to 556,000 in 2003. Another
of 00

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