Muslim-Catholic marriages on the rise in Italy
Rome, Jan. 16, 2007 (CWNews.com) - According to the Catholic charitable organization Caritas, the number of marriages between Italians and foreign natives living in Italy has risen tenfold in the past 15 years.
In 1991 there were 60,000 such “mixed marriages” registered in Italy; last year there were 600,000, Caritas reports.
Italian men preferred Filipino, Romanian, Peruvian, and Albanian women. In contrast, Italian women preferred Senegalese, Tunisians, and Moroccans. The more affluent northern section of Italy leads the way in mixed marriages.
About 10% of the mixed marriages involve a Muslim with a Catholic spouse. In the vast majority of such cases, the children are raised as Muslims. If the wife is Catholic, statistics show that she is likely to convert to Islam.
Given the tensions that mark Italian culture today, it is not surprising that these mixed marriages are fragile-- although there too the figures show a geographical difference. The average Catholic-Muslim union lasts just 5 years in the northern city of Milan, and 13 years in southern Lecce.
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Tuesday, January 16, 2007
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