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The percentage of people participating in Sunday Mass Increased from 39.1% to 39.8% in 2015 in comparison with the preceding year, while reception of Holy Communion rose from 16.3% to 17% – according to recent research conducted throughout Poland by Statistics Institute of the Catholic Church.
Poland has one of the best-structured networks of parishes in the Catholic world. The number of religious working in parishes has been relatively stable since 1972 and amounts to about 7%. In 2015, 35.5 million people, including 32.7 million Catholics (i.e., 92% Catholics), live in Poland’s Catholic parishes. In 2015, there were approximately 20.8 thousand priests doing pastoral work in Catholic parishes in Poland, while the number of women religious working in parishes was close to 7 thousand.
Steady increase in the number of parishes and priests, as well as a slight decrease in the number of the faithful recorded in the last two decades, has affected the average number of faithful in the parishes and the number of faithful per priest. In 1991, these indicators were as follows: 4.0 thousand Catholics per parish and 1.5 thousand Catholics per priest. At present, the numbers are respectively 3.2 thousand. and 1.1 thousand. At the same time, there is a visible decline in vocations, which may result in the reversal of this trend in the future.
Reception of the Sacraments in parishes is massive. In 2015, there were 369,000 Baptisms, 360,000 Confirmations, 270,000 First Communions, and 134,000 marriages.
In 2015, the number of the faithful at Sunday Mass increased from 39.1% to 39.8%, while the percentage of people who received Holy Communion rose from 16.3% to 17%.
The form of Polish Catholicism is determined by the religious activity of the laity, which represents an important element of the Poles’ social engagement. In 2014, more than 60,000 parish organizations, involving 2.5 million people, were active in Poland. In addition to the activities of the parish organizations of the Catholic Church, there are also nearly 1.8 thousand dynamic Catholic social institutions such as schools or hospices. About half of them work for the benefit of children and adolescents. Alongside these organizations, support is provided to the elderly, the poor, and the disabled.
An important element of Polish Catholicism is its Marian spirituality, which is characterized by great diversity and richness of forms, practices and customs. On the basis of the data, it can be said that there are three basic forms of Marian devotion in Poland: the Rosary, May devotions and the Devotion to the Virgin of Fatima.
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