How many Catholic priests, bishops or religious people are there in Italy? What associations aspire to represent Italian Muslims? Which associations address national masses of the many Protestant communities and individual Pentecostal Churches? What websites, email accounts, phone numbers correspond to the different Buddhist organizations, Hindu and Sikh communities in Italy? How many Italians are satanists? Which groups practice occultism, spiritualism, ceremonial magic? Which religions bring together flying saucers and Marxism? What is the Association for the Sbattezzo?
This is the work of the monitoring research agency CESNUR (Center for Studies on New Religions), which since 1988, has been working to understand Italian religions – and non-religious spiritual paths. Well covered here in the the Encyclopedia of Religion in Italy by Massimo Introvigne and Pier Luigi Zoccatelli. The authors present historical introductions, finally reliable statistical data, addresses, phone numbers, Internet links and doctrinal analysis of more than eight hundred organized spiritual and religious minorities in Italy – many of which, little known or discrete, shines a new light on pluralism in Italy. This work greatly changes the perception of religious pluralism in Italy.
