Charitable Work of the Church in the Polish Lands in the XIX Century and its Impact on Education

Leszek Aftyka,Piotr Mazur

doi:10.15330/jpnu.7.1.129-133

Abstract

The Catholic Church in the Polish lands in the XIX century has had numerous charity works. The charitable activities were seen as the task of God's commandment of love. The purpose of this activity was to support poor people in the form of satisfying basic material needs and achieving adequate personal development. The article discusses the most important forms of assistance provided by religious orders, as well as clerical and lay organizations. The author draws attention to the charity's impact on education and the formation of humanistic values in society. Many priests set up organisations that had such names as: “Star”, “Aurora”, “Fatherland”, “Rock”. Their main objective was to raise up education standards and stimulate patriotism and solidarity among young people. Therefore, cooperation between educational institutions, families, non-governmental organizations, volunteer movements, charitable foundations for the expansion of active charitable activities, and the creation of a humanistic society is required. Nowadays it is extremely important to revive philanthropy and altruism in every country. Currently, there are foundations, organizations aimed at carrying out charitable activities and attracting to the charity all who wish to serve the cause of raising Christian morality, culture, education, art, support of the poor. Thus, this is important to promote it in the educational field as well. After all, many young people are ready to help financially or spiritually those who need it; they seek to invest time, money and talent into a rapidly growing charity. Here we see an important role of the Catholic Church, which influences the development of the spirituality of the individual.

Highlights

The development of the industry at the turn of the XVIII and XIX centuries, and what is inextricably linked to the mass migration from the countryside to the cities, resulted in the emergence of new social problems
The activity of the Catholic Church in the Polish lands in the XIX century was directed towards a multidirectional charitable ministry, which was seen as tasks and activities arising from God's commandment of love and adequate to the needs of people suffering from material or spiritual poverty
There are foundations, organizations aimed at carrying out charitable activities and attracting to the charity all who wish to serve the cause of raising Christian morality, culture, education, art, support of the poor

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The development of the industry at the turn of the XVIII and XIX centuries, and what is inextricably linked to the mass migration from the countryside to the cities, resulted in the emergence of new social problems. The workers of large industrial plants became a new category of those in need of support either due to the loss of employment and source of income, or due to poor working conditions lost their health and became unemployed, deprived of their livelihoods. The old and unfit for work increased the number of seeking help [1, p. Escalation of social problems in the XIX century was accompanied by the emergence of numerous organizations and charitable institutions. In the XIX century, charitable activity in industrialized countries is developing strongly [3, p.18]

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

CONCLUSIONS