For Immediate Release
March 21, 2000

Jehovah's Witnesses gain greater recognition as a religion in Italy

ROME—On Monday, March 20, 2000, an agreement was signed between Jehovah's Witnesses and the Republic of Italy that would give the group a higher level of legal recognition as a religion. Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema and the president of the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, Valter Farneti, signed the agreement.

The text of the agreement, which the Council of Ministers approved on January 21, 2000, will now undergo a final examination by the Council in the form of a white paper. It will then be submitted to Parliament.

"We are fully satisfied with the Prime Minister's concrete step to stipulate an agreement between the State and Jehovah's Witnesses 23 years after our first official application," Farneti said Tuesday.

Jehovah's Witnesses were first legally recognized in Italy in 1976. Since then, Witness ministers have been authorized to perform civil marriages and to visit prison inmates, and they have benefited from other privileges accorded to religious denominations recognized by the State.

The agreement signed Monday specifies increased autonomy for the activities of Witness ministers, as well as recognition of their religious observances, particularly the annual memorial of the death of Christ, held in the spring.

Jehovah's Witnesses and their associates in Italy number some 400,000, in more than 3,000 communities throughout the country. Worldwide, some 14 million associate with Jehovah's Witnesses in more than 200 lands. The Witnesses have been active in Italy for 100 years, the first group being formed in the province of Turin, in 1903.

Contact: Roberto Franceschetti, telephone: 0039-06-872941 (Italy)
James N. Pellechia, telephone: (718) 560-5600 (USA)