Co-authors: Luca Bossi and Elena MessinaCultural and religious diversity characterizes today’s Italy (Melloni 2014). An outcome that has become more evident as a trait of contemporary migration flows, which have put the country among the first three-four receiving destination in the whole Europe since the 2000s. Yet, even though diversity and religious pluralism may have become politically salient issues in current public debate, they were nonetheless traits that had already contributed to forging the Italian identity during the previous centuries (Ventura 2013; 2014). The different relationships entangling political and cultural institutions and the school system in Italy, traditionally see the search for common paths that conciliate religion, religious diversity and secularism a confrontational and divisive field of action. Actors who are involved in this field actively strive to find strategies to adjust the needs emerging from relatively new religious settings – with an increasing share of students coming from a diverse population and religiosity - which are disrupting the long established cohabitation of the Catholic Church and the State in the public sphere. TO VIEW ALL GRAPHS AND TABLES IN THIS PAPER, PLEASE DOWNLOAD THE ATTACHED DOCUMENT