When looking at Italy as a whole, I automatically assumed it was a religious country. As soon as I think of Italy I straight away add connotations of religion; the Pope, the Vatican, Churches, and Cathedrals etc. As the Pope resides in Vatican City I assumed, as many others do, that it’s from this city that religion stems. When starting to research into the religious side of Venice I discovered The Vatican is completely independent and separate from Italy and Rome, even though it is located inside the city of Rome. I then tried to look into the reason why Venice is so religious, but when researching I found it isn’t really religious at all.
Roman Catholicism is the religion most popular in Italy with 85 percent of its citizens being Catholic but strangely only 20 percent of these people regularly participate in and visit services of worship. Italy is a place where religion is free, the constitution provides for freedom of religion and the government allows and respects this right in practice. Because of this, there is no state religion and the constitution does not allow support off the state for private schools, however, Catholic churches are allowed few privileges due to its status and historical political authority not available to other faiths.
The state pays for The Church to select Catholic teachers to provide instruction in “hour of religion” courses taught in the public schools. This class is optional, however, and students who don’t want to attend are allowed to study other subjects. Previously this instruction involved Catholic priests teaching Catechism (A summary of the principles of Christian religion in the form of questions and answers, used for the instruction of Christians.) but now instructors selected by the Church may be religious or not part of the clergy and their instruction includes material relevant to non-Catholic faiths.
Venice was founded in 421AD, more specifically on March 25th 421AD on the annunciation
