The Social Authority of the Catholic Church in Poland in the Process of Change

Abstract

In this article we deal with selected aspects of the social authority of Catholic Church in Polish society. We make an attempt – in light of chosen surveys of public opinion and sociological research – to describe this authority in some of its dimensions: declared trust to Catholic Church, commitment in political matters, social competences of Catholic Church, and the presence of religious symbols in the area of public life (secondary analysis of the results of empirical research). During the last years one can observe a slow process of specific “cooling” towards the strong authority of the social Church which was to be seen at the threshold of the 20th and 21st and century. Perhaps, this process will feature with the growing tendency. The crisis of the social authority of the Church in Polish society seems to have had an impact on the crisis of religious authority and vice versa, even if the power of this mutual impact cannot be empirically measured in a precise way.

Keywords

• autorytet społeczny
• kościół katolicki
• zaufanie do kościoła
• zaangażowanie polityczne kościoła
• kompetencje społeczne
• symbole religijne w przestrzeni publicznej