Andrzej Dominiczak
IMPRESSIVE GROWTH OF ATHEIZATION AND SECULARIZATION IN POLAND
According to the study published in February by the Public Opinion Research Center (CBOS), since 2005, i.e. the death of pope John Paul II, the number of Poles who identify themselves as non-believers doubled from 4% to 8%. In the same period, the proportion of strong believers fell from 12% to 8%.
Similarly, religious practices were on a relatively stable level in the years 1997-2005, but declined after the death of John Paul II. Since 2005, the proportion of respondents who practice regularly, i.e. attend religious service at least once a week, fell from 58% to 50%, while the number of people who never do it rose from 9% to 13%. The true picture, however, is probably much brighter. The study conducted in 2014 by the Statistical Institute of the Catholic Church shows that the number of practitioners is even lower and for the first time has fallen below 40% of the so called "obligated catholics" who constitute 82 per cent of the faithful, while - according to the their own data - there are about 33.5 million of the faithful constituting about 87% of the Polish population. So, if we refer the result of the catholic counting to the whole population, we will find that its is only 27 to 28 per cent of Poles who actually attend religious services.
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