Italian bishops deny promoting Islam in schools: "fake news"

The Italian Bishops' Conference (CEI) has denied reports, circulating in recent days in newspapers and on social media, that it promotes the teaching of Islam in schools. "The news that the CEI promotes the teaching of Islam at school is false," the CEI's National Office for Social Communications wrote on X on 29 October.

"There is a name for all this: fake news," the office's director, Vincenzo Corrado, told the Italian Catholic agency SIR. "A hoax, indeed, born from the distortion of the Sheets to know Islam, prepared after those on Judaism and which will be followed by those on Hinduism and Buddhism."

What the Sheets are. The eleven "Sheets to know Islam" are, Corrado explained, "a cultural project" of three CEI offices — ecumenism and interreligious dialogue; education, school and university; and the national service for Catholic religious education (IRC) — together with the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI). Written by Christian and Muslim experts, they are aimed at "publishers of textbooks for the teaching of the Catholic religion, so that they have reliable sources when dealing with pluralism and religious dialogue."

First released on 10 November 2025, on the model of sixteen sheets on Judaism prepared with the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (2023), they were presented again on 21 October 2026 at Palazzo Borromeo, the Italian Embassy to the Holy See, with CEI president Cardinal Matteo Zuppi. According to SIR, the controversy began when some headlines turned a remark by Zuppi ("I would send everyone to school, because there is considerable ignorance") into a call for everyone to study the Muslim faith.

"No renunciation". "No renunciation of teaching — heaven forbid! Whoever claims this does so with malice," Corrado said. He recalled that IRC curriculum guidelines are adopted by decree of the President of the Republic, on the proposal of the Education Minister and in agreement with the CEI, and include the Creed, the Bible and Church teaching, with an approach that is "cultural and ethical, not catechetical." "The Sheets for publishers go precisely in this direction. Far from a renunciation!"

Sources: CEI Social Communications Office (29/10/2026); SIR, SIR, SIR; Vatican News.
Quotes translated from Italian (our translation).

#CEI