ROME, MAY 19 Italy may be in recession but the pornography industry in the traditionally Roman Catholic country is booming and growing more high-tech savvy by the day, a new study co-sponsored by the Vatican showed on Thursday.

The study by the respected Eurispes Institute said the aim of the industry was to provide pornography services ‘‘24 hours a day’’ via mobile phones, television and the Internet. It put revenues for pornography and related industries at about $1.4 billion in 2004, up by some 100 million Euros over the previous year and 27 per cent since 1991.

So-called ‘‘sexy shops’’ selling videos, DVDs and other products are sprouting up around the country, with some opening near highway exits alongside gasoline stations. But most of the revenue comes from pay TV pornography, on-line sales, sex-over-the-phone chat lines and sales of video clips over third generation mobile telephones.

The figures by Eurispes contrasted starkly with the general economic mood in Italy, whose economy has slipped into recession after two consecutive quarters of contraction. ‘‘The overall sales figures from pornography are enormous,’’ said Archbishop John Foley, president of the Vatican’s Communications Department. ‘‘The money invested is astronomical and the effects, especially on children, are often devastating,’’ he said. Foley said the numbers in the study painted a ‘‘sad and desolate’’ situation for Italian society. —Reuters

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