We often associate Italy with the Catholic Church but, that is no longer becoming the reality. According to OPERATION WORLD researchers, the Catholic faith in Italy is slowly being eroded with paganism. Occultism is widespread, there is roughly 100,000 full-time consulting magicians, nearly 3 times more than Catholic clerics. Also, if you don't know that Turin, Italy is the global center of satan worship. So, after examining the following statistics I pray that all saints would pray for the country of Italy and see the great need for the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be preached.
a) Only 1,500 of Italy’s 33,500 communities have an established evangelical witness.
b) The northeastern Veneto Region with the cities of Venice, Padova and Vicenza has 4,437,000 people, but maybe no more than 38 churches and 2,000 evangelical Christians — mainly AoG, Brethren and three congregations related to ECM.
c) Sardinia, a Mediterranean island with a limited autonomy, has 1,660,000 people with their own language and culture. There are only about 14-15 evangelical churches, and a few Christian workers. Suspicion of outsiders, fear, vendettas, the occult and the activities of JWs all make any evangelistic outreach difficult.
d) The wealthy, materialistic northern cities of Milan, Turin, Bologna and Venice have few churches. Many cities and towns have no evangelical witness at all. The northern provinces of Umbria, Trentino, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna have less than 0.1% Evangelicals.
e) The 1,600,000 students in 48 universities are a needy mission field. There are only around 100 students linked to the GBU(IFES) in eight cities, and a few others with CCC. Occasional outreaches by OM and YWAM teams reach others. The second largest student body (117,000 in Milan) has no evangelical campus group.
f) An estimated 400,000 heroin addicts, with an increasing incidence of HIV+ infection, pose a desperate and demanding challenge only beginning to be met by Evangelicals (Betel, in 5 centres; Teen Challenge 2; AoG 1).
