Culture

Religion

Majority of Italian describe themselves as Roman Catholics but only 10 percent attend Mass regularly.

For a long time, La Serenissima was also a rare haven of religious tolerance. Although its Jews were squashed into what was known as Ghetto, they had a reasonable degree of autonomy in business and were free to practise their faith. After the fall of Constantinople, a wave of Greek Orthodox refugees arrived in Venice.

Only when the 1929 Lateran Treaty between the Vatican and the Italian state was modified in 1985 was Catholicism dropped as the state religion. There are about 150,000 Protestants living in Italy. Most of them belong to a sect known as Waldensians. Italy is also home to about 35,000 Jews and a small number of members of the Greek Orthodox church.

As a result of significant immigration from other part of the world, some 825,000 (1.4% of the total population) live in Italy, though 50,000 are Italian citizens. In addition, there are 110,000 Buddhists (0.2%), 70,000 Sikhs, and 70,000 Hindus (o.1%) in Italy.