Abstract
This article deals with a piece of empirical research conducted in Sicily by means of questionnairing a group of people selected by statistical sampling. The results were compiled from the completed questionnaires of 719 subjects, and the objective was to illuminate the concept of “diffused religion” as observed in the presence of common social values which tend to unify behaviour and attitude deriving from both the religious and lay perspectives. Cluster analysis was used to identify six different groupings: religious (church) acritical; religious (church) critical; religious (diverging from the church) critical; religious (diffused) as a condition; religious (critical and distancing self from the church); and not religious. The starting point for the research is the hypothesis that Catholicism (as the dominant religion) pervades many sectors of social life and maintains its influence over common values, despite the effect of increased distance between people and institutionalized religion. This appears to refute the theory of secularization.