A needy Country

Behind a veneer of warm, nostalgic romanticism and folklore, our beloved Italy hides a great spiritual need. Italians have always held deep and eclectic spiritual affections. For centuries these have been expressed through an often superstitious form of Roman Catholicism. While this is still present, a "mix-and-match" approach to religion is extremely popular today. The practice of occultism is also highly prevalent with the number of fortune-tellers being four times higher than that of Catholic priests and with 13 million clients annually. Secularism is also quickly rising, especially in the north, and is openly hostile to anything that dares to call itself "Christian". This is especially in reaction to the cultural pre-eminence of the religion of the State in times past. Often stigmatized, the evangelical church has been present on the scene for a fairly long time now, and yet it still accounts for only around 0.7% of the population.

Italians have never known the Reformation and the Italian evangelical church can be characterized by unbiblical teaching and practices. We will join that small but rising number of reformed churches who want to counter such tendencies. We will strengthen them through faithful biblical teaching and church-planting for the glory of God.

Turin is where, it seems, the Lord is leading us. This is a big historical and industrial university city in the north-western Italy, not far from where Rocco grew up. It was the first capital of the unified Country, is home to some old big factories, and hosts almost 100.000 university students annually, many of whom international. The actual city itself counts 900.000 inhabitants, while its greater metropolitan area reaches 2 millions.

There are quite a few reasons why you may have heard of this city before. Firstly, it is the place where the so called 'holy shroud' is kept - that is, what is traditionally believed to be the burial cloth Jesus was wrapped in after crucifixion. Secondly, because of the 1969 British  comedy movie 'The Italian job' starring Michael Caine - yes, all the action takes place right there. Thirdly, the city has been the home town of the FIAT car brand for many years. Fourthly, if you are sporty, you may remember the 2006 Winter Olympics and that the city is also home to the most famous Italian soccer team: Juventus F.C. 

However, Turin is also negatively famous for allegedly being, after London, the city with the highest number of Satanic cults in the world. While numbers are highly uncertain and there is much myth involved, Turin is surely the headquarter of the so called 'church of Satan' - a cult where hate for God is celebrated and crucifixes are desecrated. Indeed, the words of the glorified Jesus sound here so pertinent: 'I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is' (Rev 2:13). 

Turin is a city where the economical divide is ever growing. While a small minority is getting richer, the majority working class isn't: unemployment is at almost at 10%. The city has also a big number of legal immigrants (about 10% of the population), plus many illegal, poorer ones.