Forget fasting, give up Facebook for Lent

Chocolate, cigarettes and alcohol may be the predictable vices to give up for the 40 days of Lent but Italians are being urged to abstain from more contemporary pleasures, like texting, Facebook and iPods.

The Bishop of Modena, in northern Italy, has called on young Italians to give up on Fridays their addiction to sending text messages, in the run-up to Easter Sunday. Archbishop Benito Cocchi said that this would help them to "cleanse themselves from the virtual world and get back into touch with themselves".

The average Italian sends 50 texts a month, the second highest rate in Europe, behind Britain.

The bishops of Pesaro, on the Adriatic, and of Bari, in the south, have also picked up on the idea of a "text message fast" and more bishops could follow suit.

In the Diocese of Trento, in the foothills of the Alps, Archbishop Luigi Bressan has set out a type of calendar of abstinence for his parishioners, with each Sunday of Lent dedicated to a different sacrifice.

He has called on Catholics to abstain from using a car, from logging into Facebook, from listening to music on MP3 players, and from playing computer games. He has also suggested that people use Lent to embrace recycling and he called for "abstinence from egocentricity".

In Venice, the bishop has suggested giving up mineral water and drinking only tap water during Lent.

In Rivoli, a parish priest has issued his catechism students with a black cloth to be draped over the family TV. It is not known if he also instructed his students on how to deal with any family members who may wish to see the local football team play or keep up with their favourite soaps.


In Rome, an official of the schools department has already removed meat from school lunches on Fridays during Lent. The move has sparked protests, not for nutritional but for political reasons, since it is seen as a religious interference in public life.

One reader of the daily newspaper La Repubblica wrote in, suggesting that for Lent, "Italy's Catholic institutions should renounce interfering in Italian politics".

- INDEPENDENT