Article 1 of the Albertine Statute identified Catholicism as the single religion of state but declared that other existing confessions were tolerated in conformance with the laws.
[2] Nevertheless, in the years leading up to the unification of Italy the Kingdom of Sardinia was more tolerant than other states on the peninsula: in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany the practice of religions other than Catholicism was punishable by imprisonment or exile.
[2] The Kingdom of Italy inherited in effect the Piedmontese-Sardinian constitution and on 18 March 1871 a major advance in religious freedom in the country was made by an order of the day introduced by the liberal reformist Pasquale Stanislao Mancini which established that all religions should be treated equally.
In the latter stages of World War II, in particular during the period of the Italian Social Republic and of German occupation of much of the peninsula, many Jews, as well as non-Jew political dissidents and even Catholic priests, were deported to the Nazi death camps.
(Article 19)Various laws enacted during the Fascist period remained in force, however, and a number of trials took place involving Pentecostals and Jehovah's Witnesses.
[citation needed] Usage of Catholic symbolism (especially crosses) in courts and schools has been contested by minorities, but was ruled legal; some contend that this is in violation of the principles of religious freedom outlined in the Constitution of Italy.
[citation needed] Apart from political and ethical aspects, since the Lateran Treaty, Italy provides public funding of the Catholic Church, that do not include only the otto per mille tax.