Dilemmas of the Catholic Church in Poland
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Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change Series IVA. Eastern and Central European Philosophical Studies, Volume 52 Series VIII. Christian Philosophical Studies, Volume 12 General Editor George F. McLean Dilemmas of the Catholic Church in Poland Polish Philosophical Studies, XIII Christian Philosophical Studies, XII Edited by Tadeusz Buksiński The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Copyright © 2015 by The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Box 261 Cardinal Station Washington, D.C. 20064 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Dilemmas of the Catholic Church in Poland / edited by Tadeusz Buksinski. -- first [edition]. pages cm. -- (Cultural heritage and contemporary change. Series IVA, Eastern and Central European philosophical studies ; Volume 52) (Cultural heritage and contemporary change. Series VIII, Christian philosophical studies ; Volume 12) (Polish philosophical studies ; XIII) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Catholic Church--Poland--History--21st century. I. Buksinski, Tadeusz, editor. BX1566.2.D55 2015 2014041775 282'.438--dc23 CIP ISBN 978-1-56518-302-5 (pbk.) TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Tadeusz Buksiński Chapter I. Why are They Leaving? Students Say ‘No’ 9 to the Catholic Church: Analysis of Empirical Study Results Maria Libiszowska-Żółtkowska Chapter II. Alternative Forms of Spirituality and 27 the Role of the Catholic Church as Spiritual Guide Rafał S. Niziński OCD Chapter III. The Church in the Media Age 41 Józef Majewski Chapter IV. Conceptual Disjunctions as a Challenge for 67 the Church: A Cognitive Linguist’s Perspective Aleksander Gomola Chapter V. Problem of Authority of the Catholic Church in Poland 87 Przemysław Strzyżyński Chapter VI. Contemporary Moral Issues in the Light 133 of Gospel Teaching Tadeusz Buksiński Chapter VII. Theology of the Body and the Technicization 155 of Human Corporeality Dariusz Dobrzanski Chapter VIII. “Excarnation”: A Rebuttal 171 Łukasz Tischner Chapter IX. Problem of Ecumenical Dialogue between 183 the Catholic Church and Non-Christian Religions Włodzimierz Wilowski Contributors 209 Index 211 INTRODUCTION TADEUSZ BUKSIŃSKI We live in a world of unprecedented social, economical, political, cultural and religious changes. In some regions and countries change has accelerated more than in others in the last decades. In the region of Central and Eastern Europe it is particularly remarkable. The fall of totalitarian systems has caused the transformations of all spheres of collective and individual life in this region. But the transformation of religions has specific features. In the Western countries the process of rapid secularization took place in the 1960s. In Central-Eastern Europe, in the first decades after the fall of communism the number of believers went up significantly. Increased political significance of religion and its presence in public sphere was also noted. Churches made attempts at regaining the social status from before communism. They aspired to make religious identity a constituent part of the national identity. But in more recent years some phenomena have weakened the traditional religions and their social and political position. The religious life in some societies in this region begins to resemble the religious life in western societies. Public and personal morality is detached from religious morality. The number of clerics studying in seminaries is decreasing along with the number of priestly vocations. Political democratization and liberalization forces traditional churches to implement internal democratization though they are not always ready for this process. Religion is most important in Poland, owing mainly to the Catholic Church. More than 90% of Poles still claim to be Catholic and about 40 % regularly attend Sunday services. The Catholic Church played the most fundamental role in the fight against communism. After the fall of communism, the Church, aware of its social power and authority, started public activity aimed at the introduction of standards of religious morality in public and political life. But the present situation of the Church in Poland is paradoxical. On the one hand, the Church became the basic social institution, capable of exerting influence upon the society, government, and politics. It is a force based on traditions, customs and beliefs of people as well as on doctrine and fidelity to its principles. On the other hand, the Church is weakening due to some external and internal factors. The former are in the sphere of public relations, and can be described as politicization and pluralisation. The strong position of the Church in the society is a temptation to being used for political purposes as the Church exerts influence on legislation and politics. In this spirit it campaigned against abortion, homosexual 2 Tadeusz Buksiński marriages, euthanasia, capital punishment, pornography, in vitro fertilization etc. But more and more people are against the involvement of Church in political life and imposing religious morality as the basis of legislation. As internal in the Church this could be described as lack of democracy. Believers now often reject not only the Church political activity but also Church authority. They are critical of the hierarchy, its way of life (especially sexual scandals and materiality) and its authoritarian style of teaching. Privatization and individualization of beliefs are processes which are taking place within believers. Personal morality, and particularly sex life, is the sphere with the most individualization. In Poland two-thirds of Catholics could be labeled “unknowing or knowing heretics,” because they accept only some dogmas of the Church. In this sense they do not belong to either dwellers or seekers. This volume contains nine articles about current and important religious issues. The authors present, on the one hand, a description of the religious’ situation in Poland and in the world, on the other hand, they try to formulate the issues and theses theoretically and normatively. All articles refer in a way to the disjunctions stated by Charles Taylor. The first article presents the attitude of students toward the Church on the basis of sociological research, and as the model of the tendencies present today in Polish society in general. The next four papers concern the problem of dwellers and seekers and stress especially the need to find a new language, which opens the Church to the people and to dialogue in a time of accelerated cultural and scientific transformations. Three papers then concern the issues of the status of the body and sexual life in Church doctrine today and in the past. The last paper analyzes the opportunities and obstacles in the ecumenical dialogue with non-Christian religions. Maria Libiszowska-Żółtowska’s paper “Why are They Leaving? Students say ‘No’ to the Catholic Church: Analysis of Empirical Study Results” presents the opinions of students about the Church. She states, that an increasing number of students are losing the emotional ties with the Church and cease to consider the Church as a community of faith. The aversion to the Church and priests is rising in the last years, but does not discourage the young people from seeking God. The relationship with God, however, acquires a direct and individual dimension. It is a form of private faith which distances itself from the model of Church religiousness. The Church, as the institution especially the clergy is gradually losing confidence and authority with the young people. They search for spirituality outside the Church. What is more, young people become their own authorities on matters of faith and morality. Rafał Nizinski’s paper “Alternative Forms of Spirituality and the Role of the Catholic Church as Spiritual Guide” interprets the personal Introduction 3 experiences of the author as an active member of many social groups and movements. The author notices a paradox: many famous artists in Poland are very sensitive towards problems of contemporary society and interpret them in terms of moral values and norms crucial for religious morality (love, justice, honesty, ethos). But as they are critical of the Church and do not believe in God, the Church treats them as alien. According to the author, the Church should support these artists. Because they preach a moral good to people who do not want to listen the Church. In this way the Church could offer society some moral teaching and thus influence society. The Church should adopt a similar attitude to other unbelievers (philosophers, economists), if their views are somehow compatible with the general outlines of the Christian revelation. The paper describes the author as a monk cooperating in the environmental movements, birdwatching and sports. He sees these activities of unbelievers as representing a secular spirituality and a sign of God’s influence, if they strive towards goodness, rightness and peace. The priests should contact them and cooperate in order to help honest lay people to reject their prejudices about the Church. In this context the author suggests that the gap between sacrum and profanum is not as wide as the institutional Church presupposes. The fascination of the young people with eastern religions is explained in the paper as a means to escape from materialistic life and anonymity, which are also present in the Catholic Church. The Church should also practice, in parishes, the spirit of contemplation as the sign of the times. The parish life should become more open to honest people in search of orientation in their life. The paper explains the degradation of the moral authority of the Polish Church by two factors: the hostility of the media and the public reciprocal criticism between various factions within the Church. But the deeper reasons for this situation is a lack of democracy and internal dialogue inside the Church (between bishops, priests and lay people). Jozef Majewski’s paper “The Church in the Media Age” describes the role of media in the process of the return of religion to the public sphere. The Catholic Church in Poland usually treats the media as a threat.