Catholic Church in Poland

"Polish Church" redirects here. For other uses, see Polish Church (disambiguation) and Polish Catholic (disambiguation).


Catholic Church in Poland
Polish: Kościół katolicki w Polsce
Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń
TypeNational polity
ClassificationCatholic
OrientationLatin and Eastern Catholic
ScriptureBible
TheologyCatholic theology
PolityEpiscopal
GovernanceKEP
PopeFrancis
Primate of PolandWojciech Polak
PresidentStanisław Gądecki
DivisionsArchbishop
DivisionsBishop
RegionPoland
LanguagePolish, Latin
HeadquartersWarsaw, Poland
FounderMieszko I
Origin966
Civitas Schinesghe
SeparationsPolish-Catholic Church of Republic of Poland
Protestantism in Poland
Official websiteKEP
Monument in Poznań to Karol Wojtyła, a Pole who was Pope John Paul II from 1978 to 2005.

Polish members of the Catholic Church, like elsewhere in the world, are under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. The Latin Church includes 41 dioceses. There are three eparchies of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the country, with members of the Armenian Catholic Church under the Ordinariate for Eastern Catholics in Poland.[1] The oridnaries of these jurisdictions comprise the Episcopal Conference of Poland. Combined, these comprise about 10,000 parishes and religious orders. There are 40.55 million registered Catholics[2][3]: 4  (the data includes the number of infants baptized) in Poland.[4] The primate of the Church is Wojciech Polak, Archbishop of Gniezno. In the early 2000s, 99% of all children born in Poland were baptized Catholic.[5] In 2015, the church recorded that 97.7% of Poland's population was Catholic.[2] Other statistics suggested this proportion of adherents to Catholicism could be as low as 85%.[6][7] The rate of decline has been described as "devastating"[8] the former social prestige and political influence that the Catholic Church in Poland once enjoyed.[9] On the other hand, a 2023 survey of 36 countries with large Catholic populations using data from the World Values Survey revealed that 52% of Polish Catholics claimed to attend Mass weekly, the seventh highest of the nations surveyed and the highest among European countries.[10] Most Poles adhere to Roman Catholicism. About 71.3% of the population identified themselves as such in the 2021 census, down from 88% in 2011.[8]

  1. ^ "Ordynariat".
  2. ^ a b "Statistical Yearbook of the Republic of Poland (2014)" (PDF). stat.gov.pl.
  3. ^ "Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae in Polonia AD 2017" (PDF). Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae in Polonia (in Polish). 2017 (2017). Instytut Statystyki Kościoła Katolickiego SAC. 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 October 2022. Retrieved 10 May 2017.
  4. ^ "Kościół podaje 7% ochrzczonych z kapelusza! | Www.wystap.pl – jak wystąpić z kościoła. Centrum informacji i platforma batalii". Wystap.pl. 22 August 2010.
  5. ^ Porter, Brian. "Catholic Church in Poland: Introduction". Making the History of 1989. Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  6. ^ Główny Urząd Statystyczny (2014). Rocznik statystyczny Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej 2014 (PDF). Warszawa: Zakład Wydawnictw Statystycznych. (in Polish and English)
  7. ^ US State Dept 2022 report
  8. ^ a b Tilles, Daniel (29 September 2023). "Proportion of Catholics in Poland falls to 71%, new census data show". Notes From Poland. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  9. ^ "Religion in Poland". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  10. ^ Jonah McKeown (29 January 2023). "Where is Mass attendance highest? One country is the clear leader". Catholic News Agency. Retrieved 2 November 2023.