Causes, forms and effects of social and moral confusion of the institutional Roman-Catholic Church in Poland

Józef Baniak

doi:10.14746/cis.2016.41.3

Abstract

The lostness of an individual or institution is manifested in their aversion towards conforming or adapting to the social and cultural conditions in which they are to function or carry out their fundamental tasks. Lostness affects secular institutions as well as religious institutions, including churches. In this paper I demonstrate the lostness of the institutional Roman Catholic Church in Poland over the past 25 years through the reflections of clergymen and theologians, as well as on the basis of sociological research findings. Theologians claim that this lostness also signifies the specific pastoral situation of the Church brought about by the systemic transformations in Poland over this period, previously unencountered by and unknown to the Church, hindering the Church’s functioning and inducing it to take erroneous decisions. Lostness takes on a variety of forms and is manifested in numerous spheres of the Church’s secular activities, but does not affect its essence or religious identity. However, it does embrace its functions and actions, its attitudes and its decisions, in the area of secular and political activity, its relations with society, and also in relations within the clerical community. Wording it differently, lostness applies to the human structure of the Church, and within this above all the bishops and leaders who guide it and manage its assets, and who also perform an instructional and educational function towards the Church’s faithful.

Highlights

The focus of the present paper is on the way in which the institutional Roman-Catholic Church seems to have been at a loss for a number of years, which has an important impact both for the Church and for the society within which the Church serves its religious mission and undertakes secular endeavours
For the Polish Roman-Catholic Church, being at a loss has come in a variety of different forms, and each of them resulted in different negative effects or consequences for the relations with the state and society
Examples of such consequences came in the harsh criticism of the Church and its secular and political engagements, the negative evaluation of the immoral behaviour and actions of the parish priests – especially in cases of paedophilia and other sexual excesses; the criticism levelled at monasteries due to their material covetousness; the indifference on the part of many Catholics with respect to the religious and moral doctrine of the Church, or the disappearance of the bonds of the school and academic youth with the Church, its religious and social organisations, as well as with the parish clergy

Summary

Introduction

What does “being at a loss” mean – what constitutes its essence, in what ways does it find expression, what causes it and what role does the phenomenon play in human relations – individual, collective and social? What are the JÓZEF BANIAK sources of the Roman-Catholic Church in Poland being at a loss, what signs are there of this state – what are its causes, forms, symptoms and consequences for the functioning of the Church as an institution as well as a community of religious people, as well as for the relations between the Church and society and its members? The present paper aims at answering these questions; it is made possible based on the existing statements of authoritative Church figures, combined with the results of scientific research into the Church and its difficulties with fulfilling its social and religious mission, as well as with its accommodation to the conditions of social and cultural life. For the Polish Roman-Catholic Church, being at a loss has come in a variety of different forms, and each of them resulted in different negative effects or consequences for the relations with the state and society Examples of such consequences came in the harsh criticism of the Church and its secular and political engagements, the negative evaluation of the immoral behaviour and actions of the parish priests – especially in cases of paedophilia and other sexual excesses; the criticism levelled at monasteries due to their material covetousness; the indifference on the part of many Catholics with respect to the religious and moral doctrine of the Church, or the disappearance of the bonds of the school and academic youth with the Church, its religious and social organisations, as well as with the parish clergy. In their view, such changes could “heal” the Church from the state of being structurally and functionally lost (Baniak, 2005, pp. 107-154)

Symptoms of the Polish Institutional Church being at a loss

Short final reflection