Young Poles are turning their back on Catholic values, a survey has found, as Poland commemorates the fourth anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II.Only 3 per cent of Poles aged 24 to 34 want to live their lives as Catholics while 51 per cent placed the pursuit of love as the most important aspect of their lives.
Living a life of luxury was the second most desirable goal at 34 per cent, the poll carried out by the Polish market research company SMG/KRC discovered.
Despite some 95 per cent of Poles describing themselves as Catholic, the survey also concluded that in Poland's flourishing urban areas only 21 per cent of the selected ago group attended mass on a regular basis, with the majority only going to church for weddings, christenings and funerals.
Such information will deal a blow to the belief that the age group would become a bastion of Catholic values. Sometimes called the "John-Paul generation" because their formative years coincided with the papacy of the former Archbishop of Kraków, many in Poland thought that they would adhere to the values and morality promoted by the Polish Pope.
But while the late Pontiff, who died on April 2, 2005, remains a deeply revered and respected figure in his homeland, his influence, and that of the Catholic Church, has waned.
Younger Poles, benefiting from a wealth freedoms that communism denied the older generations, have embraced many of Western Europe's more liberal and secular values.
Although the survey is the latest to suggest the influence the Catholic Church has in Poland is slowly being chipped away, Father Wieslaw Dawidowski, a priest in Warsaw, while conceding that "the
Church is still redefining its role" in post-communist society, said that people should not read too much into numbers.
"Statistics are relative, and sometimes they have little meaning, and what matters to me is what people have in their hearts," he said. "Pope John Paul II did not say that churches should open their doors, but people should open the doors of their hearts to Christ, and that is a substantial difference."
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(Source: TTCUK)