Protestantism in Italy While Catholicism is by far the largest
Christian denomination in Italy and the country has more
cardinals than any other country in the world, Italy is also
home to a significant minority of Protestants. The oldest of the
non-Catholic entities, the Waldensian Evangelical Church, is a
pre-Lutheran Protestant community (which then adopted Calvinist
theology, so that it can be considered the Italian branch of
Reformed churches) and is based in some valleys of Piedmont.
Since 1975 the Waldensians form a united church with Italian
Methodists, who have traditionally had a non-episcopal polity.
The Federation of Evangelical Churches in Italy (FCEI), formed
in 1967, comprises all the historical Protestant churches of
Italy (including the Waldensians and Methodists, the Lutheran
Evangelical Church in Italy, the Baptist Evangelical Christian
Union of Italy, and some minor churches), plus two observer
members with a large following (the Federation of Pentecostal
Churches and the Italian Union of