Abstract
Historically, the presence of the Orthodox Churches in Italy is a reality established over a number of centuries; from a sociological point of view, however, their significance is a relatively new phenomenon. This comes as a result of the huge influx of Eastern European immigrants over the last fifteen years, which meant that their importance within the social and religious contexts has grown considerably, to the point that Orthodox Christianity has become the second largest religion in the country together with Islam. Despite this, very few studies have focused on the settlement of Orthodox Christianity in Italy. From the socio-cultural point of view there is no global, current description of the Orthodox Churches presence in the Italian territory, except for the first study carried out during the year 2011. In this article, we start by presenting some outcomes of a new study carried out during 2015 where we map the surprisingly quick spread of the various jurisdictions throughout the Italian regions. We then compare the new outcomes with the results of the previous study, deepening some elements such as the relationship with the Italian state, the leadership of the various communities, and the dynamics of interaction between the Orthodox Churches and Catholicism.
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- 1.
This datum then corrects with a bearish trend what was reported by Reinhard Thöle (2014). Quoting estimates made in 2011, he speaks of 1.5 million Orthodox Christians present in Germany. Even the number of Orthodox parishes present in Germany is lower than the number of Orthodox parishes present in Italy: again, according to what was reported by Thöle (2014), there are about 400 Orthodox parishes in Germany, while according to our research updated to January 2016, there are 486 in Italy.
- 2.
As far as the period from 2001 to 2011 is concerned, the data we set in Table 4.1 originate from the Immigration Statistical Dossier compiled by IDOS Study Centre in collaboration with the Italian Caritas and the Migrantes Foundation. However, the data from 2012 to 2014, following editorial changes, are drawn from the same Study Center in collaboration with the National Office Against Racial Discrimination (UNAR), and the last datum of 2015 is also worked out in collaboration with the magazine Confronti and the financial support of the Waldensian Church. A previous table containing the above data updated to 2010 was already published in Giordan (2013a).
- 3.
To collect these data, we first referred to the liturgical calenders issued annually by some jurisdictions. Given that such calenders are published only by the most represented jurisdictions in Italy, we continued the research on the internet and integrated the findings with personal meetings and telephone contacts. Communications were not always easy, not only because of the language barrier, but also because of fear from the staff of some jurisdictions of disclosing confidential information.
- 4.
The history of this Church is characterized by schisms and internal vicissitudes, to the point that today three Churches claim to guard the same religious traditions. However, an institution named “Othodox Church of Italy” was founded in 1991 by the former Catholic priest Antonio De Rosso (1941–2009), after whose death Basilio Grillo Miceli succeeded as metropolita. In 2011 a group of faithful left the Church and formed the “Metropolita Antonio Association”, which has passed under the Orthodox Roman Vetero-Catholic Church since 2013. In 2014 a second split took place. The Church Bishop Vitaly Kuzhelnyy, guided by Grillo Miceli, adhered to the Orthodox Church of Europe (a group in Paris headed by Nicholas, a Primate who claims the title of Patriarch), of which he was elected Archbishop of Italy. Currently Grillo Miceli does not claim to have any episcopal titles or to represent Italian Orthodoxy, while the other two Churches, of which we counted a parish each, are still operative. In this note we have not addressed the genesis of the group known as the “Synod of Milan”, nor have we included in our research the newly-formed Italian Orthodox Church led by Alessandro Meluzzi.
- 5.
Interview with Father Athanasius, Vicar General of the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Italy, Rome, 10 December 2015.
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Giordan, G., Guglielmi, M. (2018). Be Fruitful and Multiply… Fast! The Spread of Orthodox Churches in Italy. In: Monnot, C., Stolz, J. (eds) Congregations in Europe. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77261-5_4
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