Is Poland the last true Catholic European country? or has it fallen too?

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Those look relatively better than most places. But the mistake made in most places is the failure to make disciples and instead resulted in people who just attend services as part of their routines. Many are not grounded in faith and are easily swept away by the culture around them. Many see faith as only something to be done one to two hours a week, act one way in a church and another outside the rest of the week. This is not sustainable.
People have to disciples and not just doing it because it’s trendy. People must be part of the Body of Christ where faith is in every part of their lives and grounded in faithful Christian teachings not tainted by external cultural trends. They must be in the world but not of the world.
 
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England will be re-dedicated as the dowry of Mary in 2020. Many European countries were consecrated to the Immaculate heart of Mary over the past year as part of the Fatima Centenary. Europe is not the faithless continent that many presume it is. As I tend not to take too much notice of the mainstream media I don’t see an impending Armageddon.
There are other issues which should be considered too, Poland may be ‘stable in their faith’ but how many truly know their faith? The amount of people in the pews do not equal a strong Church.

Benedict XVI could see a crisis in the Church but didn’t see it as a necessarily negative issue. He saw instead a Church coming from the crisis which was smaller but more faithful and true (and that was in the 1960s).
There are so many variables across Europe that it is near impossible to answer the question posed.
 
Nice to hear from someone who is in Poland. God Bless all and may St. John Paul II intercede for his beloved Poland… 🦋🦋🦋
 
AngelusDomini said:
Poland may be ‘stable in their faith’ but how many truly know their faith? The amount of people in the pews do not equal a strong Church.
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I disagree. People wanting to come to the sacraments is an important part of a strong Church. They may not be super knowledgeable or do everything they are supposed to do, but they want God in the form of the Holy Eucharist. Wanting is half the battle.

I’m pretty sure throughout history, many peasants and workers and other less educated people were neither very knowledgeable nor very holy, but they went to church and the priests worked to try to impart some knowledge and keep them in line.
 
You are free to disagree. However, there is a saying in England, ‘they go to be seen’, indeed this was quite normal - the faithful filling the pews on a Sunday yet very few having any consideration of their faith on most other days. It was not a desire for the Eucharist but an expectation that was placed upon them. I could of course be wrong but we must take into consideration the cultural norms and expectations. My point is that just because attendance at Mass is high it does not equate to a population who know, and more importantly, live their faith.
 
People not living their faith like they should is a constant problem even today among churchgoers. However, the bottom line is it’s a sin to miss Sunday Mass if you are a Catholic. I agree with you it would be ideal if you went out of pure love of God, but if a cultural norm or not wanting to look bad in front of your neighbor is what gets you there, you are nonetheless there, and it is better than being “not there”.

It’s like how there are certain sins I avoid committing because I don’t want to have to tell the priest in Confession I did sin X again. It would probably be best if I avoided these sins purely out of love of God and desire not to offend him, but even if I am avoiding the sin because I don’t want to deal with Father’s annoyance at me or don’t want to have to discuss something embarrassing in confession, the end result is the same, I have avoided the sin.

You seem to be coming at this from the standpoint that if people are not perfect Catholics outside church, there is no point to them filling the Church for Mass. I disagree. They are getting grace even if they are there “to be seen” or “because it’s expected”. They are building a beneficial habit, the same way that somebody who ran a mile every morning “to be seen” would still get the health benefit of a daily exercise.

It’s rather a shame that countries like USA have totally lost the cultural expectation of church attendance and hence, the attendant benefit.
 
In my opinion, you have to look at smaller structures. You can no longer claim that any European country (apart from the Vatican) is “Catholic” at country level, not even Poland. However, I do think that in many European countries there are smaller regions, especially on the countryside, that still are quite Catholic. This is true for where I am coming from, a rural area, where I think some 80% of the population are still Catholic - at least nominally. I think this also applies to other countries such as Poland, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Italy. The bigger cities tend to be much more divided in terms of religion.
Those Catholic islands will probably hold out 50-100 years longer than the rest of Europe, but go they will eventually.
 
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If Asia, Africa, and Latin America rise up for Jesus, then they deserve to increase while Westen Civ decreases.
 
Catholicism and Western Civ grew up side by side until their paths diverged.
It’s sad.
But the Church does t need any particular culture to survive
 
Well, sorry if I misunderstood but you seem to have a seriously jaundiced view of church attendance, so whatever you’re getting at is not clear apart from that.
I personally wish more people went to church in my own country even if they’re not going for perfect motives.
 
The context of this thread was aking if Poland is the last true Catholic European country - my point is that whilst Mass attendance may be good there are many other factors that would need to be considered if one were able to ‘calculate’ how Catholic a country is. Good figures at Mass is a good thing but it cannot be the deciding factor in the context of this thread.
 
I’ve been to Poland 9 times and would say yes it is. Another part of the context, Crucifixes hanging above 90% of governmental main doors I have been to. No meat served in hospitals on Fridays.

For mass attendance, well maybe I don’t know the “real” countryside, but in the cities you will find a Catholic Church around every corner with hourly Mass on Sundays. But then again, the town I am referring to was hardly a huge city.
 
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Actually I know despite it not being as strong as it use to Ireland is still a strong catholic country. I know from growing in school its just extremely hard to be faithful especially in my all boys CBS school during the times of scandal since a lot people made jokes about priests and stuff, especially if one were to go to confession. A lot of persecution and negative spin by the media and politicians has likely hurt the church a lot especially using scandals and priests/religious who are either suspended, excommunicated, or more left wing as a way to push forward ideas that are contrary to the catholic church. However a lot of people still show up where they’re novenas especially in clonard and knock, also during the pattern days (ie local towns or villages patron saint feast day). A great number also show up to the all ireland rosary rally. The introduction of various new lay organisations have retreats and prayer meetings throughout the country dedicated to youth. A lot of the faithful in Ireland are heavily involved charitable events ranging from mental health/suicide prevention such as Pieta house, Homelessness and poverty such as capuchin day centre in Dublin, Pro life groups such as youth defense. A lot of little seedlings in Ireland and a number of new religious order/societies are after moving in so hopefully, Ireland can comeback.
 
I wonder when was the tipping point for my Nation, but since I was only born in 1992, I think I’ve done the best I can.

‘Jesus, I trust in You’
 
“True Catholic country”. That would be Heaven.

Poland has a long record of being a linchpin to hold Europe together. It was also the nation that pushed back the Ottoman Turks at Vienna and in essence saved Europe at a time when it was divided. It has not been as heavily affected by the wealthy secular liberalism & cynicism of Western Europe, nor was it as strongly indoctrinated with communism as Russia proper. So, relatively speaking, it is in a pretty decent position to build up the universal Church. They’ve had some big guns as of late: Pope St JP II, St Faustina, St Maximillian Kolbe. They reflect the wider culture & vibrancy of the country.

But the #1 changing forces in any country are going to come from within.
 
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