As many Italians prepare to celebrate the night of the witches, the Catholic Church is responding with a series of prayer, music and catechesis initiatives spanning the country from north to south. For 31 October, the Office for Pastoral Care of Free Time, Tourism and Sport of the Italian Episcopal Conference, the CEI, has changed its calendar and promoted the so-called «night of the shrines».
The initiative, which was held in June from 2019 onwards, aims to promote shrines as places of evangelisation, welcome and pilgrimage. According to the bishops' news agency Sir, the event includes 150 appointments across Italy, including prayer vigils, pilgrimages, testimonies and artistic and cultural moments. Moving the event from summer to autumn thus places the proposal on a specific date, in direct competition with the secular festival that each year draws children and young people into the streets and homes.
In Rome, as an alternative to the traditional «trick or treat», the «Night of All Saints – Night of Light» is taking place, organised by Snc-Charis Italia on the theme «You are the light of the world». At the parish of Santa Dorotea in Trastevere, starting at 9 p.m., a solemn concelebration is planned, with moments of adoration, evangelisation and confessions. A similar initiative has also been promoted in Trento, which has joined the national event.
In Bra, the Poor Clare Sisters have organised a programme in the church of the Monastery that includes the recitation of the rosary at 8:30 p.m., Eucharistic Adoration at 9 p.m. and Mass at 10 p.m. The format has been presented by the nuns as a true anti-Halloween, designed to offer the community a moment of silence and recollection precisely in the hours when the civil calendar offers costumes and parties.
In Sarmeola, in the province of Padua, young people from the diocese gather for «Saints in the Night», an event combining music, entertainment, testimony and prayer, promoted by the Fraternity Vivere da Dio in collaboration with the diocesan Youth Pastoral. During the evening there is an electric concert by Reale, reflecting a language designed to speak directly to young people. Further south, in Ravenna, the community will gather for an «All Saints' vigil» lasting until dawn.
In Milan, under the Madonnina, the diocese has organised the «Night of the Saints 2026»: young people will gather in the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio, where, on a step-by-step journey, they will share moments of celebration and prayer together with the bishop. In Asti, the «Festival of Light» promoted by the parish of the Sacred Heart offers a «murder mystery dinner» and, at 9 p.m., a «Vigil of the Saints». Through the memory and stories of the saints, participants are invited to rediscover the call to holiness as a possible path open to everyone, a message that parishes have repeated for years during the All Saints' period.