Abstract
Charitable activities of the Catholic Church in Poland are carried out primarily at two levels: national church organizations, diocesan and religious, and at the level of less formalized parish organizations. The data show a relatively low percentage of people who are strongly involved in parish activities and in non-religious (social, charitable) affairs of the parish community. The first purpose of this paper is to indicate the socio-demographic features that characterize people who are socially engaged. The second aim is to search for model regularities indicating determinants of social activity of parishioners. We conducted the research in parishes of Lublin Archdiocese in 2020. The research sample was 1867 people, of whom 70% were women. The average age of the respondents was 54.31 years. We have selected predictors that characterise the participants of the non-religious activities in the parish. Referring to the theoretical model of social participation and the concept of social capital, we have indicated the factors that shape the pro-social attitudes of parish members.
Highlights
The Polish society is still characterized by one of the highest rates of religiosity in Europe
As of 2021, 91.9% of Poles declare themselves as Catholic, and 32.5 million believers belong to the Catholic Church in Poland (Przeciszewski 2021)
According to the concept of social participation seen as a person’s experience, the process of social involvement has four dimensions: 1. subjective justification of participation; 2. axiological content; 3. sense of agency; 4. experience of participation. Referring to these assumptions and the results of own research, we propose a scheme of determinants for social involvement of parishioners (Szymczak 2013)
Summary
The Polish society is still characterized by one of the highest rates of religiosity in Europe. As of 2021, 91.9% of Poles declare themselves as Catholic, and 32.5 million believers belong to the Catholic Church in Poland (Przeciszewski 2021). As an institution, has 15 metropolises, which include 45 dioceses, and is divided into 10,382 diocesan and religious parishes (Kasper 2021). Church includes worship and works of evangelization, as well as the performance of works of mercy. The Catholic Church in Poland is very committed to charitable functions and is the largest organization, after the state, that provides assistance to the needy. This is confirmed by data from the Central
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