Taoist Church of Italy (original) (raw)

The Taoist Church of Italy (TCI for short; in Italian: Chiesa Taoista d'Italia, "CTI" for short) is a religious body of Taoism established in 2013 by Vincenzo di Ieso, a fourteenth-generation Taoist master of the Xuanwu school of the Wudang Mountains (武当玄武派 Wǔdāng Xuánwǔ pài), into which he was initiated in 1993 with the ecclesiastical name of Li Xuanzong. Despite the founder's particular affiliation, the church intends to incorporate all forms of Taoism in Italy. The establishment of the church has been defined by a scholar of religious rights as a "crucial event for both Taoism and religious freedom in Italy".