The Role of the Catholic Church and Polish Religiosity

Abstract

Poland was perceived as one of the most religious Catholic countries in Europe. However, according to various surveys, the rate of Polish church attendance was gradually decreasing. The decline appears to stem from broadly understood economic, political, and cultural transformation of Polish society resulting from commercialization and de-sacralization of religious rituals, privatization of religious behaviour and a perceived gradual secularization of Polish society. Given secularization theory and debates about the role of the Catholic Church in Poland, the aim of this article was to investigate factors underpinning the changing patterns of religious behaviour. The factors considered were connected with the recent history of the church-society relationship.
 
KEYWORDS: institution, community, commercialization, de-sacralization, privatization, secularization