Italy

A limb of southern Europe stretching out into the Mediterranean, Italy is a nation whose Roman past penetrates deeply into European cultural history, and whose Renaissance prefigured the modern humanist movement. Despite this, the Catholic Church remains a predominant force in the country today.

According to a 2021 study by the Center for Studies of New Religions (CESNUR), an estimated 74.5% of the population are Catholic, 4.1% are Christians of other denominations, 3.7% are Muslim, 2.2 % are followers of other religions, including Buddhists, Jews, Hindus, Baha’is, and Sikhs and 15.3% are non-religious.¹ The non-religious are by far the largest “religious” minority in Italy, consisting of 15.3% of the population as of 2019.²

Constitution and government

While the Italian Constitution has guaranteed freedom of religion since 1948, it was not until 1979 that the Constitutional Court affirmed the equality of rights for the non-religious,³ and only in 1989 did laicità (neutrality of the State with respect to religions) become a Constitutional principle (following a judicial ruling of the Court).⁴

Until its revision in 1984, the Concordat with the Catholic Church (which has constitutional status) implied that Italy formally had a State religion.

A web of accords and concordats, with some notable exceptions

The government keeps a complex system of legal agreements with various religious communities. It gives support to religious communities according to these accords. A lack thereof does not affect someone’s rights to believe, but prevents a belief group from receiving many privileges available to other communities.

As of 2024, Italy has established agreements with thirteen religious groups, including the concordat with the Catholic Church, Orthodox Christians, Jews, Baptists, Lutherans, Hindus, Jehovah’s Witnesses and some Buddhist organizations (the last having been approved with the Istituto Buddista Italiano Soka Gakkai in 2016).⁵ Muslims comprise the biggest group without an agreement, mostly because of the lack of a unified representative body.

The Union of Rationalist Atheist and Agnostics (Unione degli Atei e degli Agnostici Razionalisti – UAAR), a Member Organization of Humanists International, requested an agreement with the State on the grounds that religious beliefs should not earn their adherents more rights than non-believers. However, in 1996 the Undersecretary of State responded that these accords “cannot be extended to other associations that don’t have a religious nature”. In the same year, UAAR appealed to the President of the Republic, on the basis that several constitutional rulings establish equality between the rights of religious organizations and of non-religious life-stance associations. This appeal was won. Nevertheless, the Council of Ministers (i.e. the executive branch of the government) gave a negative answer in 2003, and the resistance to accepting the equality of non-religious worldviews has persisted, producing a sequence of sentences, appeals, wins and losses that span two decades,⁶ and remain ongoing. In 2016, the Constitutional Court ruled in favor of the government, establishing that it is within the government’s prerogatives to arbitrarily pick the organizations entitled to enter into an agreement, which to date has been granted to religious denominations only.⁷

Privileging the Catholic Church

Among the privileged religions, Roman Catholicism is the dominant faith, and by far the most privileged. Its ministers, for example, are present in several institutions of the State, and funded through public resources; they can be found in hospitals, prisons, military bases, nursing homes and university campuses.⁸ In all these places, representatives of other religions are allowed, although on an unpaid basis.⁹ Secular or non-religious representatives, however, are admitted only in limited cases.¹⁰

The media landscape is overwhelmingly dominated by the Catholic Church. A 2015 study revealed that 95% of the television time dedicated to religious content was allotted to the Catholic Church, encompassing both the news and mass-culture programs.¹¹ The Italian state television, RAI, has an entire department, RAI Vaticano, solely dedicated to the task of promoting Catholic messages.¹² During the spring 2020 pandemic lockdown, RAI 1, the most well-known State channel, aired live broadcasts of Pope Francis’ holy mass, as part of its popular daily morning show “Uno Mattina.”¹³ Conversely, the coverage of time dedicated to humanism and non-belief was almost non-existent.

In Italy, the tax system disproportionately favors the Catholic Church. Taxpayers are required to give 0.008% (“8 per mille”) of their taxes to either a recognized religion or to the State. However, most taxpayers opt for neither, mistakenly assuming that their share will automatically go to the State. Instead, funds from those who do not specify a beneficiary are distributed among all the possible recipients, according to the proportion of expressed choices.¹⁴ Since the majority identify at least nominally as Catholic, most funds ultimately benefit the Catholic Church. In 2015, only 34.46% of the taxpayers showed a preference towards the Catholic Church, but it received 79.87% of the funds.¹⁵ This mechanism has been denounced as inadequate and misleading by the Corte dei Conti (Court of Auditors), which has also exposed the discrimination against the religious groups not recognized by the State.¹⁶ Despite the increasing secularization of Italian society, this disparity remains significant: less than 28% explicitly chose the Church as the “8 per mille” recipient in 2022, while the Catholic Bishops received more than 69% of the funds.¹⁷

The Italian tax on real estate has long been criticized by UAAR for disproportionately favoring the Catholic Church. Although the details have varied over the years, the Italian Government has historically exempted church-owned schools, hotels and private hospitals from paying this tax.¹⁸ Following a dispute with the European Commission and the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the ECJ appeal judges ruled in 2018 that Italy must recover the arrears.¹⁹ In response, the Italian Government attempted to delay compliance, to avoid upsetting the Vatican, claiming that an ad-hoc law was required. In 2019, the “Movimento 5 Stelle” introduced such a law in the Senate,²⁰ however, despite being proposed by one of the parties in the ruling majority at that moment, the proposal was never discussed. Since then, nearly one law per year has been drafted, but none has been discussed (as of the time of writing of this report), prompting the European Commission to repeatedly call out Italy for its non-compliance.²¹

UAAR has estimated that when the costs of this “religion tax”, the expenses related to religious personnel, and the other privileges of the Catholic Church are combined, the State grants more than 6 billion euros (approx. US$6.5 billion) to the Church each year.²²

Italian legislation still allows privileged judicial treatment of the Catholic Church.²³ This is likely a contributing factor to the low numbers of prosecutions of child abuse cases within the Church when compared to other European countries. For example, police are required to inform the bishop before undertaking certain methods of investigation on members of the clergy, which could facilitate cover-ups.²⁴

Testing church-state relations and religious privilege: the “Crucifix affair”

The display of crucifixes in schools and public offices, including tribunals, reflects a preferential treatment for Catholicism in the public sphere.²⁵

In 2003, a challenge to the separation of Church and State arose when a member of UAAR, with the support of the association, sought the removal of crucifixes from her son’s school classrooms. The request, grounded in concerns over the State’s religious neutrality,²⁶ was initially denied by the school, and was subsequently addressed to the Regional Administrative Court. In 2005, the court upheld the school’s decision, providing the following rationale:

“the crucifix [is a] symbol of a particular history, culture and national identity […] and an expression of some of the secular principles of the community”.²⁷

After the Council of State confirmed the verdict, the case was brought to the European Court of Human Rights, since all domestic remedies had been exhausted. In 2009, a first-instance Chamber of the Court ruled that crucifixes should not be present in classrooms, noting that by aligning the schools with a particular religion, such religious symbols may serve as signs of exclusion and marginalization.²⁸ But some members of the Italian government responded with reactionary fervor to the ruling:

“We won’t remove the crucifix. They might as well die, we will not remove it”
— From a 2009 television interview of the then Minister of Defence Ignazio La Russa.²⁹

The government appealed immediately to the Grand Chamber, which, in March 2011, overturned the previous decision, declaring that every European State has a “margin of appreciation” in religious matters, and that the crucifix is a religious, but passive, symbol.³⁰

Another case went before Italy’s Supreme Court in September 2021. High school teacher, Franco Coppoli, had been suspended in 2014 for repeatedly removing a crucifix from the wall of the classroom in which he was teaching. Two courts had previously rejected the appeal against the suspension. The Supreme Court, however, acquitted Coppoli of the suspension imposed on him. The ruling also stated that the crucifix represents, “the lived experience of a community and the cultural tradition of a people”³¹and that, while the symbol is not mandatory, the decision of whether to display a crucifix in classrooms is left to each school.

Nativity scenes are another religious symbol that have caused controversy in recent years. The current government drafted a law in December 2023, still to be discussed in parliament, seeking to prosecute schools who choose not to display the scenes during the traditional Christmas period.³²

Education and Children’s Rights

The preferential treatment of Catholicism in schools remains problematic under the Concordat³³ which mandates “Catholic Religion Teaching” across all levels of education. Teachers for this subject are selected by the Church but funded by the State. This requirement does not extend to universities, although students in Catholic universities must undertake a Theology exam regardless of their chosen field of study, both for entry and during their studies.³⁴

Schools are required by law to offer alternatives to the teaching of religion. These alternatives may include an additional subject, individual study with teacher assistance, independent study, or permission to leave the school premises. The alternative subject varies depending on the available teachers and does not necessarily align with a civic and/or humanist topic.³⁵

Notwithstanding, UAAR reports several accounts of schools that have allegedly discouraged students and parents from exercising their right to refuse the default Catholic teaching, citing reasons of conformism, integration, bureaucratic difficulties and alleged lack of funds. In some instances, students have avoided religious instruction by declaring affiliation with another religion, be it true or not.³⁶

Pastoral visits by clergy and religious ceremonies often take place during school hours. Although mass is formally prohibited during school time,³⁷ some schools “suspend classes” for the duration of the mass, to allow for it. There are reports of blessings taking place inside the school premises. However, they became a controversial topic after 20 parents and teachers made an appeal to the Regional Administrative Tribunal (TAR) Emilia Romagna for the cancellation of such activities on school grounds during Easter. The issue was handed over to the Consiglio di Stato (Council of State), where it was ruled that blessings were legitimate outside of school hours and in extracurricular activities, at the voluntary presence of those who wished to participate. The judges of the Consiglio di Stato also added a purely religious reasoning, whereby the rite of benediction only “makes sense if it is celebrated in a specific place, while it would not make sense (or, in any case, the same sense) if it was celebrated elsewhere”.³⁸

UAAR assists families affected by religion-based discrimination and abusive religious activities at school through its “SOS Laicità” online service, providing, among other things, legal counseling and templates for legal actions.³⁹

Family, community and society

Religious marriage

Both civil and religious marriages are recognised in Italy. For a religious marriage to be considered valid it must be performed by a Roman Catholic priest who registers the marriage with the civil authorities. In the case of non-Catholic religious ceremonies, a civil ceremony must be performed beforehand to ensure the legality of the marriage.

It is not infrequent that people seeking divorce pursue an annulment from the Church rather than through the Italian legal system. When obtained, it makes the wedding invalid from the beginning (as if it were never in existence) not only on the religious level, but also on the civil one, with relevant consequences: for instance, civil courts have to recognize the religious annulment and revoke the alimony rights for the less well-off partner. However, the Court of Cassation has the final word on the matter, and in several cases it has decided to maintain the alimony.⁴⁰

Unequal treatment of religious belief groups

Humanists left behind

The steady growth of humanist funerals and wedding ceremonies (which still, at the end of 2024, have not been permitted to confer legal marital status) is hindered by municipalities that do not have appropriate places to provide for the ceremony, even though the law says they must provide them (for funerals: Decree of the President of the Republic of 14 January 1997).⁴¹

Frequently, State authorities tend to attribute a higher value to religion and to inflate its significance over secular worldviews. For example, in a paradigmatic 2010 ruling, the Tribunal of Milan, called upon to decide whether a mother could send her child to church against the father’s will, not only ruled in her favor, but even made a value judgment about her religion over the father’s non-religious views – a “moral evaluation” subsequently censored by the appellate judge as going against the principle of laicità.⁴²

Marginalization of Muslims

Although Islam has more members than some religious groups with official status — including Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism -, it does not have official recognition.⁴³ Therefore, no Muslim organization may receive public funding from the “8 per mille” mechanism. Since 2005, the Ministry of the Interior has established, under different names, representation groups of Italian Islam to foster dialogue, and ultimately a legal agreement, between the government and the Italian Muslim communities reunited under a common umbrella organization.⁴⁴ Muslim organizations and leaders have yet to reach a consensus in order to sign an accord with the government.⁴⁵

The official recognition of Islam has not been the only issue surrounding the marginalization of the Muslim community in Italy. The unwillingness or inability of the government or local administrations to allow the construction of mosques in Italian cities has led to more than 900 unofficial Muslim places of worship being constructed.⁴⁶

For instance, the Islamic association in Pisa appealed to the Tuscan regional administrative tribunal after the Pisan City Council blocked the construction of a mosque and decided to reconvert it into a parking area stating that the land lot was not big enough for such a building.⁴⁷ According to opponents to the project, the main reason for blocking it was the allegedly dubious origin of the funds, and the suspicion of links with the Muslim Brotherhood.⁴⁸

In June 2023, the government introduced a bill that would prohibit religious groups without an accord from using their own or rented properties for religious activities. At a parliamentary hearing Muslim and Christian communities opposed the law as discriminatory and in violation of constitutional principles,⁴⁹ but nonetheless it has already been approved by one of the two parliamentary chambers and it is likely to be approved in the other.⁵⁰

Sexual and Reproductive Rights

Impact of conscientious objection on access to safe abortion

Abortion was legalized in 1978, with a law (known by its number, 194) that allows women to terminate pregnancies during the first trimester, and after 90 days only if the mother’s life or health is at risk or if there are serious fetal pathologies.

Law 194 gives healthcare practitioners the option not to provide services that are specific and necessary to an abortive intervention on the grounds of a conscientious objection.

On average, conscientious objectors among Italian gynecologists amount to just over 70%. In some regions, this figure is higher. In one region in Central Italy, Molise, for example, 93% of gynecologists are conscientious objectors. Sicily and Lazio are among other regions where this number is also over 80%.⁵¹ According to the Italian Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics (UAAR), this number continues to grow due to the Vatican’s influence on Italian politics and society, which helps maintain a stigma around abortion services.⁵²

Research from 2020 shows that the use of conscientious objection to refuse abortion services by gynecologists in Italy, hampers abortion access at the local level and leads to longer waiting times. The research also found that the negative consequences of conscientious objection has a stronger impact on women living in lower-income regions or those experiencing other forms of economic disadvantage.⁵³

The UN Human Rights Committee has expressed concerns regarding difficulties in accessing legal abortions in Italy due to the high number of conscientious objectors and their distribution across the country,⁵⁴ and on two separate occasions the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR)⁵⁵ found Italy to be in breach of international treaties for failing to ensure the right to healthcare, owing to the deficiencies in service provision caused by health personnel invoking conscientious objection. The ECSR also noted that as a result of the lack of abortion providers, pregnant women are in some cases forced to travel to another region or abroad.

Impact of religious anti-abortion activists on access to safe abortion

It has been reported that a federation of anti-abortion activists, linked to the US religious Right, also have an impact on access to safe abortion in Italy. The federation, called Movimento per la Vita (‘Movement for Life’), follows a Catholic doctrine and has, since 2013, been in partnership with the US Christian Right group Heartbeat International.⁵⁶ Heartbeat opposes modern contraception, and has been a partner of the ultra-conservative World Congress of Families (WCF) network. The WCF held its 2019 global gathering in Verona, where Matteo Salvini – then Italy’s deputy prime minister and leader of the far-Right Lega party – gave a keynote speech.⁵⁷ Members of Movimento per la Vita seek out women in hospitals who are considering abortions and try to stop them from making that choice by providing them with false and intentionally scary information, such as abortion causing “post-abortion syndrome” or a 50% increase in breast cancer risk.⁵⁸

According to data from the Ministry of Health, there are only 381 public or private health facilities that provide abortions nationwide.⁵⁹ Meanwhile, the anti-abortion centers in Movimento per la Vita’s network have grown to over 350.⁶⁰ In April 2024, using an amendment to its European Union post-COVID recovery plan, the Italian Parliament voted in favor of allowing pro-life groups to be present in clinics that offer abortion consultations. The move has sparked a row within the EU with a number of European governments strongly criticizing it.⁶¹

LGBTI+ Rights

Same-sex civil partnerships became legal in Italy in 2016, making same-sex couples equal in law in all areas except adoption. While courts can legally allow second parent adoption, the government has been hardening its stance on same-sex parents by demanding local councils only list biological parents on birth certificates.⁶² In October 2024, the government brought in a law banning couples from going abroad to have a baby through surrogacy.⁶³ Surrogacy was already illegal in the country⁶⁴ and this latest move is considered by many as a further targeting of the LGBTI+ community.

Despite UN recommendations, the Italian government has been fighting against legislation to address hate speech and discrimination against the LGBTI+ community. In 2021, it rejected the so-called “Zan Bill” which addressed hate speech and violence against women, LGBTI+ and disabled people. The Catholic Church had been vocal in its opposition of the bill arguing that it would restrict the Church’s freedom of thought.⁶⁵ More recently, the government has rejected similar policy initiatives coming from the EU.⁶⁶

Assisted Dying

In September 2019, a Constitutional Court ruling (242/2019)⁶⁷ declared Article 580 of the criminal code unconstitutional, therefore decriminalizing assisted dying in the case of those aiding people suffering from an irreversible condition to die. However, despite the Court’s recommendation, the Italian Parliament has not yet passed a law regulating assisted dying.

Freedom of expression, advocacy of humanist values

Defamation and ‘blasphemy’

Defamation of religion is still a criminal offense under articles 403 and 404 of the Penal Code.

Article 403 punishes the conduct of “offending a religious confession by vilifying those who profess it” with a fine between €1,000 ($1,186) and €5,000 ($5,932). The fine is increased to €2,000-6,000 ($2,373-7,118) if the vilified person is a “minister of worship”, namely a clergyman of whatever creed.⁶⁸

Article 404 punishes with a fine from €1,000 ($1,186) to €5,000 ($5,931) “whoever, in a public place, or place of worship, by offending a religious confession, vilifies with insulting expressions things which form objects of worship, or are consecrated to worship, or are necessarily intended for the exercise of worship”. The article also specifies a prison term of up to 2 years for “anyone who publicly and intentionally destroys, scatters, deteriorates, renders useless or smears things that are objects of worship or are consecrated to worship or are necessarily intended for the exercise of worship”. The overlap here with criminal damage and inflation of the crime purely for “religious” objects is problematic, but so far it appears that a prison term would not apply except in cases of physical damage to religiously-defined property.⁶⁹

‘Blasphemy’ per se also remains an administrative offense under Article 724, and it is punished with a fine between €51 ($60) and €309 ($367); it was a penal offense until as late as 1999.

In April 2024, a painting on display as part of an exhibition in Modena which appeared to depict Jesus receiving oral sex, caused public outrage.⁷⁰ The painting was subsequently vandalized and the artist attacked. Religious figures from the Catholic Church sought to diffuse the situation and defended the artist’s freedom of expression.

Also in April 2024, Italy’s advertising standards authority removed a television commercial in which nuns are offered crisps instead of hosts during Mass. The president of the Italian Association of Radio and Television Listeners called for the advert to be banned on the grounds that it was “blasphemous”. The regulator upheld the appeal and reminded the advertiser that their publicity “must not offend moral, civil and religious convictions”.⁷¹

Italian footballers have also been punished in recent years for using “blasphemous” language when caught swearing on the pitch with religious references. The offense has led to the Italian Football Federation imposing match bans on a number of players.⁷²

Testimony

“I remember the threatening phone calls, which I received both day and night. I remember the stigma from colleagues, the deterioration of personal relationships and the overwhelming sense of isolation. Few expressed solidarity or sympathy with me. Yet, upon my return, I received numerous letters of support, but not from Italy: solidarity came from France, Germany, and other countries.

The pressures I endured, the consequences on my personal relationships and the financial and work difficulties made everything deeply burdensome. It wasn’t easy to hold on. There are many people and organizations that I must remember for their support and solidarity. It was a long and arduous battle for freedom, for conscience and for the freedom to teach that lasted fourteen years and has not yet fully come to an end.”

– Franco Coppoli (teacher who removed crucifixes from his classrooms and faced a long legal battle)

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