ABSTRACT
Catholicism is part of Italy’s collective identity; indeed, the teaching of Catholicism has dominated, as a nearmonopoly, state education in Italy. In recent years, however, religious and cultural pluralism have gained increasing visibility in Italy. Such changes are making a dramatic impact on the state school system. Moreover, increasing pluralism, together with the state’s financial difficulties and resistance to a more culturally and religiously open state school could encourage the development of religious schools, which have been traditionally less important in Italy than in other countries.
The Concordat between Italy and the Holy See, dated February 18, 1984, stipulates that the teaching of the Catholic religion must be funded by the government pursuant to a joint management system governed by agreements between the Italian Episcopal Conference and the Ministry of Education (Article 9, Paragraph 2).1
