Poles and the Church. The statistic are dropping. Causes? Secularisation – and demographic collapse

Poles go to church little often, children are little frequent in spiritual lessons, spiritual houses are desolate, and priests and candidates for priesthood are less and fewer. This is the consequence of the statistical surveys of the Church in 2023. The causes of the problems are two: secularisation and demographic collapse.

Every Sunday he goes to church 29, 02 percent and Holy Communion receives 14, 02 percent of the faithful. Last year 267, 2,000 people accepted the sacrament of baptism. More than 78 percent of students attend religion. specified data – for 2023 – shows the latest statistical year of the Institute of statistic of the Catholic Church "Annuary Statisticalum Ecclesia in Polonia". The publication was presented present during a press conference at the KEP Secretariat in Warsaw.

The dominicantes rate, i.e. those attending Sunday Holy Mass in 2023, was 29.02 % and the communicates, or those joining Holy Communion, was 14.02 %. In comparison to 2022, this means a decrease in the dominicantes ratio of 0.5 p. % and an increase in the communites by 0.1 p. %. By comparison, in 2019, the dominicantes ratio was 36,9 % and the communites rate was 16,7 %.

As far as spiritual practices are concerned, there are large differences between different regions of Poland. The highest dominicantes rate has traditionally been recorded in Tarnów diocese (60.5%), Rzeszowska (53.2%) and Przemysl diocese (49.1%). The lowest – in the diocese of Szczecińsko – stone (17.2%), Sosnowiecka (17.87%) and Koskolinski – kolębrzeska (18.58%).

Let us remind you that the dominicantes and communetes rate determines the percent of people participating in the Sunday Eucharist and receiving Holy Communion in relation to those obliged to participate. (These indicators do not include, for example, young children under the age of 7, sick and aged people with limited mobility capabilities.)

In 2023, a share in spiritual lessons fell.

In the 2023/2024 school year, 78.6% of students attended spiritual classes in educational institutions. Last year it was 80.3% of pupils and 88.6% of students in 2019.

The least of the students attend spiritual lessons in advanced school. That's little than 60 percent.

The highest percent of students attending spiritual lessons was recorded in the Diocese of Przemysl (96.0%), Tarnowska (95.9%) and Rzeszowska (94.1%), and the lowest in the Diocese of Warsaw (58.3%), Warsaw-Prague (61.6%) and Wroclaw (63.5%).

Within respective years there is besides a decrease in the number of nuns and monks. At the women's conventions in 2023, the number of nuns was 15.6 thousand, which represents a decrease compared to the erstwhile year (15.9 thousand) and 2019 (near 17.2,000). On the another hand, 1165 sisters live in contemplative assemblies (data from 2022)

The number of members of men's spiritual gatherings and apostolic life associations in 2023 totalled 7 337 (not counting monks surviving outside Poland). Last year there were 7721 and in 2019 8218. In full there are 78 male gatherings in Poland. The most many male gatherings are Franciscans, Salesians, and pallotins, as in the erstwhile year.

The number of priests has fallen. The number of priests incarcated in the Roman Catholic diocese and the Greek Catholic eparchy in 2023 was 23,612, 153 priests little than in the erstwhile year and 1095 little than in 2019. On the another hand, diocesan priests straight active in pastoral work in parishes were 18 553 (20 729 in 2019)

In the future there will besides be fewer. In 2023, the number of diocesan alumns was 1,039, representing a decrease of 10.8% compared to 2022 and an almost 40% decrease compared to 2019.

The number of sacraments awarded is importantly smaller. In 2023, 267.2 1000 people were baptized, or 11.6 p.m. percent little than in the erstwhile year and about 28 percent little than in 2019. little than 325 000 people joined the First Communion (a drop of 3.6 p.m.). The Sacrament of Confirmation accepted 294,000 people (a decrease of 3.5 percent). The sacrament of matrimony was given to 77,2 1000 couples (a decrease of 12.1 p.m. compared to last year and about 38 p.m. compared to 2019).

The changes are related not only to secularisation, but besides to demographic collapse. Poles are born little and little all year, which has apparent consequences for the number of baptisms or vocations. Secularization itself is best spoken of by the decline in the percent of communitantes and the participants in spiritual lessons.

Source: KAI, PCh24.pl

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