The Italian scholar “was” CESNUR. He was also a brilliant academic and an exceptional and compassionate human being.
by Massimo Introvigne
This is an article I hoped I would never write. It announces a monumental, irreparable loss for his large and beautiful family, for the community of scholars studying new religious movements and esotericism, for the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), of which he was the Deputy Director and the main organizer of daily activities—and for myself. For some thirty years, PierLuigi Zoccatelli was my other half, the person with whom I discussed almost every day my academic projects and the activities of CESNUR, always receiving a sound and valuable advice, which came not only from his encyclopedic scholarly knowledge and extensive experience but also from the most genuine of friendships.
On Friday May 17, minutes after having discussed with me the details of his forthcoming trip to Sicily for the European Academy of Religion’s yearly conference, he had a cardiac arrest. Despite emergency surgery, he never recovered and died on May 24.
PierLuigi was born in Verona, Italy, on July 30, 1965. He had an interesting youth, exploring music, photography, esotericism, and finally finding his home in a solid Catholic faith, in love with traditional liturgical traditions (he later became a Benedictine oblate) but passionately loyal to Rome and the Popes. He was a very active member, and later the historian, of Alleanza Cattolica (Catholic Alliance), a lay Catholic movement canonically recognized by the Catholic Church in 2012 as a private association of faithful.
From the mid-1990s, the study of new religious movements and Western esotericism became his main interest, which led him to move to Turin in 1998 and work at CESNUR as its Deputy Director. While I am CESNUR’s Director, in fact CESNUR “was” PierLuigi Zoccatelli. He worked in the Turin office (something I never did), organized the yearly CESNUR conferences, and was the real editor of “The Journal of CESNUR.” It is difficult even to conceive a CESNUR without him.
PierLuigi was not an organizer only. He was a fine scholar in his own merits. He was the author, co-author, or editor of 18 books. He was the world’s leading expert of French Catholic esoteric author and scholar of symbolism Louis Charbonneau-Lassay (1871–1946), whose voluminous works he edited in Italian. Editing Charbonneau-Lassay was for him also an opportunity to study in depth the problematic relationship between Catholicism and esotericism, which he discussed in his 1999 “Le lièvre qui rumine,” one of the books he wrote in his elegant French. The title, “The Ruminating Hare,” alluded to the problem of reconciling esotericism and Catholicism: the hare is not a ruminating animal although by reading Leviticus 11:6 in the Bible one would believe it is.
PierLuigi was also among the best experts of Guénon, Crowley, and Gurdjieff, difficult esoteric authors on whom his writings offered new insights. I am writing this obituary near Cefalù, Sicily, where Crowley had his short-lived Abbey of Thelema, a story told in a book PierLuigi edited in 1998, “Aleister Crowley. Un mago a Cefalù” (Rome: Mediterranee).
It was PierLuigi Zoccatelli who persuaded me to embark in what looked like an impossible adventure, an “Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy,” with the ambition of listing and presenting all religious presences in our country. It was published in three editions in print in 2001, 2006, and 2013 by Elledici, Turin, and PierLuigi continued to update its online version weekly (his last update is dated May 9), making it an indispensable tool for all those looking for reliable information on religion in Italy.
Working at CESNUR, he moved from the study of esotericism to broader reflections on religious pluralism in Italy, the good and bad use of religious statistics, and freedom of religion, with in-depth studies in particular of Italian Buddhism and the global growth of Soka Gakkai. With Luigi Berzano and the undersigned, he studied religious pluralism in Sicily, co-authoring four volumes on the subject, and also participated in research projects on the Chinese community of Turin, and Celtic and neo-Pagan revivals in Northern Italy.
Those who know him only as a scholar of religion would be surprised to learn that he was a competent observer of other fields as well. For several years, he served as Executive Secretary of Torino Europa, an organization forming young scholars and leaders in and for the city of Turin. Although he did not write much about it, he was knowledgeable about Catholic liturgy and monastic traditions, modern art, and the history of terrorism in Italy. We had long conversations on these subjects and on soccer, of which he was a real expert (and a lifelong Inter Milan supporter). He even wrote in 2004 the most authoritative manual in Italian on Cuban cigars. I reviewed it knowing next to nothing about cigars but noting that the book was not deprived of sociological interest, as it presented cigar smoking as part of a lifestyle and a subculture.
Only recently, a life of brilliant work found its well-deserved academic and public acknowledgements. PierLuigi became a professor at Pontifical Salesian University in Turin in 2016 and at the University of Turin in 2020. In 2023, he was appointed by the Italian government as a member of the Commission for the “Intese” (concordats) with religious minorities and for religious liberty.
There are many other sides to PierLuigi that only his family and friends know of. He was an exceptional family man and an example of generosity, always ready to encourage and help. As believers, we are sure he is now receiving the prize for all his good deeds, perhaps organizing his next CESNUR conference in heaven with those who preceded him and were his friends, such as Jane Williams-Hogan, Maria Immacolata Macioti, Clyde Forsberg, and Liselotte Frisk.
It would be more difficult for us who remain to continue our activities without him. Trying to do our best will be our way to honor the memory of an exceptional scholar and friend.