A Church in the little town of Miekicz Nowy where my great grandfather Anton was born.
My recent trip to Europe was mainly to the Ukraine but we did spent two days in Poland. I go to Church with a lot of Polish people. I also go to church with a lot of people who have visited Poland. My Church has two priests, one of whom is Polish. Every time one of my friends comes back from visiting Poland they always tell me that I have to visit to see how Catholic it is. I finally got that chance.
I didn’t visit Warsaw, Krakow, or any of the other major cities. We visited the town of Laszki which is ten kilometers from the Ukrainian border. My mother has a distant cousin there named Maria and she kindly let us stay at her place. The first night we had dinner with Maria, then she showed us around the neighboring towns that are important to our family history. We then went back to the house and she showed us her collection of books. She’s an avid reader of philosophy. We even made an agreement that I would read one book by Immanuel Kant and she would read one book by Joseph de Maistre.
The next day we looked at some small towns close by, then we went to Przemsyl which was the largest city in the area. Churches were everywhere! Apparently they’re all full every Sunday. When we were downtown we looked at both the Roman and Greek Catholic Cathedrals, of which both were magnificent. We could see other beautiful churches a block away. We walked a bit more then saw a Franciscan monastery. Shortly after that I was waiting for the light to turn so we could cross the street. I turned around to see where my parents were and I almost bumped into a nun. Statues of saints were everywhere. It felt more Catholic than Rome.
We walked by the house where the Archbishop lives and next to it was a very beautiful seminary where new clergy are formed. The classical Polish architecture was the icing on the cake. On the drive back to Laszki Maria told us that the country has very strict abortion laws. Only in very few circumstances can a woman attain an abortion. Of course if a woman wants an abortion it’s typical for them to jump on a train to Germany where they’re more than happy to provide the service.
The country is extremely uni cultural. There are very few non-Poles in the country. The biggest minority are two million Ukrainian foreign workers that have come from the East. About 90% of the country is Roman Catholic. The remaining 10% of the people are either Byzantine Catholic, Eastern Orthodox or Tatar Muslim. Evangelicalism or other forms of Protestantism are nowhere to be seen. In fact, here’s an interesting Tweet from prominent American Evangelical John Piper:
However, Christianity in Poland is not without challenges. The younger generation is less religious, though it is still the most religious of the young generations in Europe.
The above graph is taken from the following study on the religious observance of youth in Europe:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/21/christianity-non-christian-europe-young-people-survey-religion
Despite declines in religiosity, Poland is hands down the most religious country in the survey. Another problem that Poland faces is being part of the EU which is essentially run by Germany. There will certainly be some secularizing influence coming from that direction. However, Maria did tell us that Laszki spent the money they received from the EU renovating their local church.
Poland is easily the most Christian country in the West. What does the future hold? Could they become utterly secularized? I suppose it’s possible. Could they reconvert Europe to Christianity? I suppose that’s possible as well. After all, they do give the world many priests. Many of the priests in my city are Polish. Most likely the answer lies somewhere in between these two extremes. Either way, we need to pray for this tiny island of hope which is floating alone in an ocean of European secularism. The Gospel isn’t dead in Europe as of yet.
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