Last Updated on Tuesday, 15 February 2011 14:54
Shops at the Church of Piazza Armerina by the Center for Studies on New Religions in collaboration with the Diocese of Piazza Armerina and ISSR "Mario Sturzo", is organized for Thursday, February 24 at 16, a conference to present the survey "Identity 'at risk: religious beliefs in eastern Sicily and on the book published by Editions Lussografica with the participation of prof. Introvigne, prof. PierLuigi Zoccatelli, Bishop Michele Pennisi and dr. Alberto Maira. At a distance of less than a year after the publication of the book The Mass is ended? Catholic practice and religious minorities in central Sicily, the result of a sociological survey prepared by the professors and Pierluigi Zoccatelli Introvigne, the same authors published the results of another study in this book entitled The identity at risk. Religious beliefs in central Sicily. The search for the complaint which is presented in this volume, coordinated locally by Dr. Alberto Maira, was made in 2010 based on a sample considered representative of the entire population of the diocese, including non-Catholics, the faithful of other religions and those who do not identify with any religion.
This research, which deals with the cognitive component of religious beliefs, has selected seven typical of the Christian faith, taking into account such indicators as well as sex, age, and also the level of education of respondents. The purpose of the investigation was not, of course, to make a test of how many and which formulas of the catechism's investigation had retained in memory even after many years, but the attempt to bring out the acceptance or rejection of certain beliefs fundamentals of Christian faith, with the implicit expectation of having to define, at the end of the route statistics, a complex picture of lights and shadows.
Research indicates that religious identity, which is part of the Christian religion and Catholic, is still strong and deeply rooted as part of the culture centrosicula, Sicilian and by extension, when compared to other Italian and European regions where the process of secularization has eroded very Christian identity. In terms of beliefs, the vast majority still identified with the framework of certain fundamental truths of Catholic faith. But the statistical tables also document a wide swing, a witness is likely to influence educational heterogeneous than the monolithic system of the past, or the result of a growing subjectivism-rationalization of faith, which came to many of the consumer goods and personal well-being, the " Do-it-yourself "religious beliefs. Wonder, for example, that only 76.9% declared that they believe that "God exists and is a person" while 90.7% believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 84, 0% of its divinity, 84 , 2% in miracles, 81, 1% to 75.5% in Hell and Paradise. Probably the question on the existence of God united to that of his personality, has avoided if they could respond positively to those who profess a vague deism, led to some confusion by highlighting a lack of logical coherence between the different beliefs and a gap in their hierarchy with the official system. The specification of the various concepts of God, distinct from the qualifying point of the Christian faith, namely, the dogma of the Trinity of Persons in the Unity of Nature in God, he could bring out a different picture, more precisely, from that outlined. But this is a matter for further research. It is also significant that belief not shared (73.2%) and the finding that "The Catholic Church is an organization promoted and assisted by God." It has confirmed the spread especially among the younger generations of the slogan "Christ, no Church", which shows how the Church is not seen as the necessary mediation for the relationship with Christ, but in some cases as an obstacle to meet with Christ.
There are, therefore, the shadows. The data, lower on the belief in the Catholic Church must create some kind of pastoral concern. It cost an erosion of Catholic identity, especially in younger generations: trust in the Catholic Church decreases among young people, between the male population and among those who graduated. Many who turn away from the truths of the Catholic faith, especially among young people, and do not replace faith with other beliefs, but they fall into a kind of practical agnosticism and relativism which does not theorize as atheism. Surprising still, the fact that believe in horoscopes, 8, 6% of the overall sample and 9.7% among young people, certainly influenced by certain TV shows. Worthy of relief, finally, is the documented belief in UFOs and extraterrestrials, that young people attain a level of 37.4%, standing at record levels. Confirming the well-known paradox of Gilbert Keith Chesterton, which reads: "Whoever does not believe in God is not true that he does not believe in anything, because they believed everything." In our people, even if there are secular trends, religion continues to be a primary agency for the production of meaning of life and of community, which is expressed in various forms of popular piety, but where the feeling tends to prevail over reason and the coherence of life. One has to wonder whether Catholicism, reduced to traditional cultural fact, not only manifest a religious facade result of social control rather than result from a convinced and consistent commitment in faith. We are witnessing the evolution of a trend towards disintegration of the unity of beliefs, it seems that even in our area, we start with a loss of specificity Catholic.
While we applaud the effort of investigation supported by the authors, we hope that we can add to the techniques of quantitative social research also used to supplement other "qualitative methods", which includes other valuable indicators of religiosity experienced objectively, such as participation in religious festivals, religious associations and its consistency, the spread of Christian-inspired print, the choice of Catholic religious instruction in schools, the signatures for the eight per thousand.
This research, ultimately, it is most valuable because it helps to be aware of the religious reality of our territory to verify the relationship between belief, affiliation and religious practice, and program in pastoral reflection, adequate measures in the context of new evangelization has as its target group young people, men, educated people.
Work, and to Introvigne Zoccatelli, which is echoed in the Guidelines of the Italian Bishops' Conference for the decade 2010-2020 "Educating for the good life of the Gospel" and new initiatives promoted by the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization. A response to the problematic framework outlined by the work, will certainly be the indications emerging from the upcoming Synod of Bishops in 2012 on the new evangelization for the transmission of the Christian faith. "
+ Michele Pennisi
Bishop of Piazza Armerina
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