Multiple Buddhism in a Catholic Country: Measuring Religious Belonging and Practice across Traditions in Italy

The argument for adopting more comprehensive measures of religiosity, put forward by Yang and McPhail, underscores the centrality of the concept of ‘multiple’ as an entry point for analyzing contemporary religious belonging and practice. This article offers the findings from a 2023 study conducted among adherents of the Italian Buddhist Union (UBI, n = 515), testing the multiple religiosity hypothesis within the context of a predominantly Catholic society. After outlining the sociodemographic and cultural backgrounds of the participants, we explore the patterns of multiple religious belonging (MRB) and multiple religious practice (MRP) among Italian Buddhists, considering their prior and newly declared affiliations. Consistent with the research hypothesis–originally tested on a sample of young East Asians respondents by Yang and McPhail–UBI members in our study exhibit distinct patterns of MRB and MRP, with the latter being more prominent. In the Italian Catholic cultural context, characterized by societal conditions that foster pluralism, we found that both MRB and MRP demonstrate elevated levels, while newly acquired religious belonging plays a crucial role in the religious practices of UBI members.