In the 2001/2002 school year, 93.2% of Italian students chose the teaching of the Catholic religion as against 6.8% of students who preferred “not to avail themselves of it”. This is what emerged from the 2002 yearbook, published by the CRT (Catholic Religious Teaching) department of the Italian Bishops’ Conference in recent days. The yearbook draws on the statistical data gathered in 196 dioceses of the 226 present in Italy. The total sample surveyed was over six million students, equivalent to 78.4% of the school population. “A comforting finding – according to Gian Antonio Battistella and Dario Oliveri, who coordinated the survey – that confirms and consolidates the tendency of the majority of Italian students and families to avail themselves of the optional slot in the school curriculum set aside for religious instruction”. Over the last nine years, in fact, the percentage of those who opt for CRT has never dropped below 92%.
