This is happening throughout the western world. The Big Atheist wave of the 90’s and early 2000’s sought to accomplish two goals: 1)demonize Christianity and 2)indoctrinate young people into becoming ignorant atheists.

So what happened?

It half worked.

They demonized Christianity along with the media for decades quite successfully. It didn’t hurt that many Catholic and Christian leaders are craven cowards who seek worldly praise above all else.

But then something happened they didn’t expect. All those would be atheists understood in their heart and soul (yes, their soul) that there was more to this universe than just material. They knew there was something more so they sought to find something more while navigating around the Church and Christians. They ended up in Wicca, rubbing crystals, looking for knowledge through tarot cards, visiting psychics, and communicating with the dead.

Catholic Herald UK: A startling number of lapsed Catholics in Italy are reverting to the deities of ancient Rome and turning to pagan seers, astrologers and psychics, attesting to a potentially catastrophic collapse of Catholicism in its traditional bastion.

Over 160,000 sorcerers are doing brisk business in the occult and New Age practises, with over three million Italians consulting the so-called “maghi” every year for advice. This involves shelling out an astronomical €8 billion, according to data from the Osservatorio Antiplagio.

Between 10 to 13 million Italians – almost all of them baptised Catholics – have turned to sorcerers or witches at least once in their lives; while 30,000 Italians from all classes of society seek out psychics and visionaries daily, in a quest for a better future, the Codacons agency states.

The epicentre of witchcraft and occultism is in the Lombardy region of northern Italy, with 2,800 occult operators and 200,000 clients – numbers that far exceed the percentages of resident Catholic priests and Catholics who attend Holy Mass on a weekly basis.

A survey conducted in 2023 by the market research company SWG found that 34 per cent of Italians believe or engage in necromancy, 24 per cent in black magic, 19 per cent in predicting the future with cards, 18 per cent in white magic, and 17 per cent in psychic or occultic healers.

In 2019, Pope Francis warned Italians “not to seek happiness by following smoke vendors – who are often vendors of death – experts in illusion”, a reference that was interpreted by Italian media as a caution against the proliferation of witchdoctors.

A year later, the Holy Father reiterated his admonition in his Epiphany homily, urging his flock not to follow “magicians, fortune tellers, [or] sorcerers” lest “you risk becoming idol-addicts”.

In an Angelus address in July 2023, the pontiff cautioned Catholics to reject beliefs “in superstitions, such as magic, tarot cards, horoscopes and other similar things”, noting that “many, many Christians go to have their palms read”.

Recent figures confirm the findings of a doctoral thesis submitted by Stefano Falappi to the University of Bergamo (2012), titled Education, Religious Diversity and Non-religious Beliefs, which demonstrated that it is no longer the Catholic religion dominating Italy but “religious diversity and non-religious beliefs in the increasingly pluralistic Italian context”.

Meanwhile, in a parallel phenomenon, Italians disenchanted by the Church are claiming they have found an authentic spirituality by returning to their roots and reclaiming the pagan gods of ancient Rome.

This is the new battleground for Catholics. We need to convert the pagans. Here’s the thing. We know we can do this. We’ve done this before. But it takes courage. We have to stop flattening the Church to make it more amenable to Enlightenment materialist thinking. Our faith is wild. There are miracles, sacrifices, sins, angels, saints, demons, principalities, prayers, and judgement. Yes, judgement.

Ours is the greatest story ever told. We just need to tell it. And it has the advantage of being true.