Italy

Population: About 60 million people.

Religion: Roman Catholicism ceased to be the state religion in 1984. All religions have equal freedom before the law, but not in practice. Increasing acceptance of diversity within the Church bears witness to a gradual change from the decades, even centuries, of division within Protestantism. There is a growing sense of grace and acceptance of appropriate theological differences. Widespread division, legalism, fragmentation and distrust stunted the potential impact of evangelicals, but respect and even cooperation are starting to develop. 

Indifference to the gospel has typified Italy for ages. Secular materialism ensnares many. Satanism is growing in various areas,Turin being one of the global centres of its activities. Occultism continues to be alarmingly widespread – there are more than 150,000 practicing soothsayers, prognosticators and healers, in contrast to around 50,000 Catholic priests! Eastern and esoteric spirituality are increasingly popular. Italians are more liable to dabble in an occult, New Age or pagan practice than to read the Bible.Those who do pray will often pray to Padre Pio (37%) or Saint Anthony (21%) rather than to Jesus (less than 10%). Cults are active; Jehovah’s Witnesses number more in Italy than all its Protestants combined.


Prayer list: 

• Pray that more people will be lead the truth - to Christ. Pray more believers will will give their lives to mission and to see others giving their life to Jesus. 
• Pray that there will be more cooperation among churches and denominations,  more evangelism, outreach and mission vision and for the immigrants of believers in Italy.
• The challenge of Christian leadership in Italy remains urgent, since a lack of mature, qualified and gifted leaders persists.Thankfully, increasingly diverse options like full-time training institutions and modular programmes are available. Pray that the various means of training would bolster pastoral leadership across the nation and, in turn, uplift and disciple the whole Church to entirely new levels of maturity.
• Pray that there will be more Christian literature with high quality that will lead people to Christ. Pray also that the Bible will be shared to more people and that the truth will be revealed to the people of Italy.
• Organized crime networks have infiltrated every level of society. Pray for those courageous enough to oppose this parasitic system draining the Italian economy. Pray for Christians to live out Kingdom values and morals when faced with difficult decisions. Pray for a transformation of Italian government, law enforcement and economy.