Editing Geneva (section)

=== Religion ===

{{Pie chart
|thumb = right
|caption = Religions in Geneva (2023)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Religions en Suisse: Résultats selon l'âge, le sexe, la nationalité et le canton, en 2019 |url=https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/fr/home/statistiques/population/langues-religions/religions.assetdetail.33947018.html |website=Office fédéral de la statistique |access-date=27 January 2025 |language=fr}}</ref>
|label1 = [[Catholicism|Catholic]]
|value1 = 26.3
|color1 = Blue
|label2 = [[Protestantism|Protestant]]
|value2 = 5.90
|color2 = Red
|label3 = [[Christianity|Other christians]]
|value3 = 6.29
|color3 = Turquoise
|label4 = [[Judaism|Jewish]]
|value4 = 1.29
|color4 = Purple
|label5 = [[Islam|Muslim]]
|value5 = 7.32
|color5 = Green
|label6 = [[Religion|Other religious groups]]
|value6 = 1.72
|color6 = Pink
|label7 = [[Irreligion|Irreligious]]
|value7 = 48.8
|color7 = Orange
|label8 = Unknown
|value8 = 2.36
|color8 = Grey
}}

In 2023, the religious composition of Geneva’s permanent resident population aged 15 years and older reflected significant secularism and religious diversity. According to the Federal Statistical Office (OFS), the largest share of the population, 51.1%, identified as either having [[Irreligion|no religious affiliation]] (48.8%) or as having an unknown affiliation (2.36%). [[Christianity]], as a whole, accounted for 38.5% of the population, with 26.3% identifying as [[Catholicism|Catholic]], 5.90% as [[Protestantism|Protestant]], and 6.29% belonging to other [[Christianity|Christian]] communities. Among other religious groups, 7.32% of the population identified as [[Islam|Muslim]], 1.29% as [[Judaism|Jewish]], and 1.72% adhered to other religions.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Religions en Suisse: Résultats selon l'âge, le sexe, la nationalité et le canton, en 2019 |trans-title=Religions in Switzerland: Results by age, gender, nationality, and canton, in 2019 |url=https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/fr/home/statistiques/population/langues-religions/religions.assetdetail.33947018.html |access-date=27 January 2025 |website=Office fédéral de la statistique |language=fr}}</ref> 

The {{as of|2000|alt=2000 census}} recorded 66,491 residents (37.4% of the population) as Catholic, while 41,289 people (23.20%) belonged to no church or were agnostic or [[Atheism|atheist]], 24,105 (13.5%) belonged to the [[Swiss Reformed Church]], and 8,698 (4.89%) were [[Muslim]]. There were also 3,959 members of an [[Orthodoxy#Christianity|Orthodox church]] (2.22%), 220 individuals (or about 0.12% of the population) who belonged to the [[Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland]], 2,422 (1.36%) who belonged to another Christian church, and 2,601 people (1.46%) who were Jewish. There were 707 individuals who were Buddhist, 474 who were Hindu and 423 who belonged to another church. 26,575 respondents (14.93%) did not answer the question.<ref name=STAT2000/>

According to 2012 statistics by Swiss Bundesamt für Statistik 49.2% of the population were [[Christianity|Christian]], (34.2% [[Catholic]], 8.8% [[Swiss Reformed]] (organized in the [[Protestant Church of Geneva]]) and 6.2% other Christians, mostly other [[Protestants]]), 38% of Genevans were [[Irreligious|non-religious]], 6.1% were [[Muslim]] and 1.6% were Jews.<ref>{{cite web |date=1 January 2012 |title=Ständige Wohnbevölkerung ab 15 Jahren nach Religionszugehörigkeit, 2012 |trans-title=Permanent resident population aged 15 and over by religious affiliation, 2012 |url=http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/themen/01/05/blank/key/religionen.Document.21757.xls |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120106215454/http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/themen/01/05/blank/key/religionen.Document.21757.xls |archive-date=6 January 2012 |access-date=6 April 2014 |publisher=Bundesamt für Statistik |language=de |format=xls}}</ref>

Geneva has historically been considered a [[Protestant]] city and was known as the ''Protestant Rome'' due to it being the base of [[John Calvin]], [[William Farel]], [[Theodore Beza]] and other [[Protestant reformers]]. Over the past century, substantial immigration from France and other predominantly [[Catholic]] countries, as well as general secularization, has changed its religious landscape. As a result, three times as many Roman Catholics as Protestants lived in the city in 2000, while a large number of residents were members of neither group. Geneva forms part of the [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg]].

The [[World Council of Churches]] and the [[Lutheran World Federation]] both have their headquarters at the [[Ecumenical Centre]] in [[Grand-Saconnex]], Geneva. The [[World Communion of Reformed Churches]], a worldwide organization of [[Presbyterian]], [[Continental Reformed]], [[Congregational]] and other [[Calvinist]] churches gathering more than 80&nbsp;million people around the world was based here from 1948 until 2013. The executive committee of the [[World Communion of Reformed Churches]] voted in 2012 to move its offices to [[Hanover]], Germany, citing the high costs of running the ecumenical organization in Geneva, Switzerland. The move was completed in 2013. Likewise, the [[Conference of European Churches]] have moved their headquarters from Geneva to Brussels.

===="Protestant Rome"====
[[File:ReformationsdenkmalGenf1.jpg|thumb|[[Reformation Wall]] in Geneva; from left to right: [[William Farel]], [[John Calvin]], [[Theodore Beza]], and [[John Knox]]]]
Prior to the [[Protestant Reformation]] the city was ''de jure'' and ''de facto'' [[Catholic]]. Reaction to the new movement varied across Switzerland. [[John Calvin]] went to Geneva in 1536 after [[William Farel]] encouraged him to do so. In Geneva, the Catholic bishop had been obliged to seek exile in 1532. Geneva became a stronghold of [[Calvinism]]. Some of the tenets created there influenced Protestantism as a whole. [[St. Pierre Cathedral]] was where Calvin and his [[Protestant reformers]] preached. It constituted the epicentre of the newly developing Protestant thought that would later become known as the [[Reformed tradition]]. Many prominent Reformed theologians operated there, including [[William Farel]] and [[Theodore Beza]], Calvin's successor who progressed Reformed thought after his death.

Geneva was a haven for Calvinists, while Roman Catholics and others considered heretics were persecuted. The case of [[Michael Servetus]], an early [[Nontrinitarian]], is notable. Condemned by both Catholics and Protestants alike, he was arrested in Geneva and burnt at the stake as a heretic by order of the city's Protestant governing council. John Calvin and his followers denounced him, and possibly contributed to his sentence.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

In 1802, during its annexation to France under [[Napoleon I]], the Diocese of Geneva was united with the Diocese of Chambéry, but the 1814 Congress of Vienna and the 1816 [[Treaty of Turin (1816)|Treaty of Turin]] stipulated that in the territories transferred to a now considerably extended Geneva, the Catholic religion was to be protected and that no changes were to be made in existing conditions without an agreement with the Holy See.<ref name="CathEncy-LausanneGeneva"/> Napoleon's common policy granted civil rights to Catholics in Protestant-majority areas, as well as the reverse, and also emancipated Jews. In 1819, the city of Geneva and 20 parishes were united to the Diocese of Lausanne by [[Pope Pius VII]] and in 1822, the non-Swiss territory was made into the [[Catholic Diocese of Annecy|Diocese of Annecy]]. A variety of concord with the civil authorities came as a result of the [[separation of church and state]], enacted with strong Catholic support in 1907.<ref name="CathEncy-LausanneGeneva" />