Study suggests Catholic marriage will be dead in Italy by 2031 Crux Staff July 9, 2016 Author A new study suggests that Catholic marriages in Italy may be a thing of the past by the year 2031. (Credit: Bellissimo Wedding.) A new study from a respected Italian research institute finds that religious marriages in one of the world's most Catholic nations are in "free-fall," and based on trends over the last twenty years, projects that by 2031 there won't be a single religious marriage in the country. Pope Francis has made family life and marriage a keen priority, and if he ever needed proof of the urgency of the cause even in his own backyard, a widely respected Italian research group has provided it: According to its recent projection, by the year 2031 absolutely no one in Italy will be married in church. Censis (“Center for Social Investment Studies”) has a quasi-official status in Italy, with its analysis often relied upon by the government in forming policy decisions. In a recent study on marriage in Italy, based on trends over the last 20 years, it found that the number of Italians entering into formal marriages has been in freefall. In 1994, according to its data, there were 291,607 marriages in Italy, a country of 60 million people where Catholics still account, formally speaking, for 95 percent of the population. By 2014, the number of marriages had fallen to 189,765, a drop of 35 percent. Moreover, the share of marriages registered only civilly as opposed to celebrated in a church has been shifting dramatically, with a drop of 54 percent in the number of Catholic marriages between 1994 and 2014. In terms of raw numbers, there were 235,936 marriages celebrated in a church in Italy in 1994, 171,900 in 2004, and 108,000 in 1994. According to the Censis projections, by the year 2020 there will be more civil marriages in Italy than religious, as the overall number of marriages continues to drop. Looking out even further, the Censis data suggests that if nothing happens to alter the demographic landscape, 2031 - meaning 15 years from now - will be the first year in which there isn’t a single Catholic marriage celebrated in one of the world’s most Catholic nations. Click here for the rest of the article: https://cruxnow.com/global-church/2016/07/09/study-suggests-catholic-marriage-will-dead-italy-2031/