Poland Sees a Significant Increase in Secularism; Church Leaders in Country Have Lost Credibility

The (Pittsburgh) Post-Gazette website reports today (December 12, 2010) that Poland is still an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country, but supporters and critics of the Catholic Church acknowledge that the society is changing.

They agree that church representatives in Poland have lost authority and credibility, and that the majority of the population is now moving toward a more secular view of life.

Church supporters said that the trend was evident in numbers: 95 percent of Poles identify themselves as Catholics, but only 41 percent attend Sunday Mass regularly. In big cities -- like Warsaw and Krakow -- only about 20 percent attend Sunday Mass.

"It seems we are Catholics in a cultural way; we identify as Catholics, but do not attend church," said Tomasz Terlikowski, editor of Fronda, a conservative Catholic magazine.