Poland: Catholic Church statistics for 2016

World Youth Day, Krakow, 2016 - image ICN/JS

The Institute for Catholic Church Statistics in Poland for 2016, have issued their latest report this week.

It shows that 36.7 percent of all Catholics participated in the Sunday Eucharist, while 16 percent received Holy Communion. This means that compared to 2015, the rate of dominicantes - that is Catholics participating in the Sunday Masses - fell by 3.1 percent, and the rate of communicantes - that is people receiving Holy Communion - by 1 percent. The highest rate of dominicantes (66.9 percent) and communicantes (25.3 percent) was in the diocese of Tarnow. At the same time, almost 48,000 Masses were celebrated on every Sunday of 2016. Catholics chose most frequently Masses in the morning between 8 and 11.

The report of the Institute for Catholic Church Statistics in Poland also shows that in 2016, 2,300 seminarians studied in diocesan seminaries. The highest number of seminarians was registered in the diocese of Tarnow (175), Archdiocese of Warsaw (155) and of Przemysl (98). There were also 25,000 priests in the Polish dioceses, among which the highest number in the diocese of Tarnow (1,559), Archdiocese of Kracow (1,182) and of Katowice (1,071).

As far as male and female religious orders are concerned, there were in Poland 18,000 nuns and 11,900 Friars. In addition, there were 83 contemplative monasteries in Poland, in which pray 1,300 nuns.

There are over more than 10,000 parishes in Poland, in which 35.7 million people live, while 2.4 million people live outside the country. In 2016, 374,300 people were baptised, about 5,000 more than a year earlier, while 138,300 people received the sacrament of marriage, 2,000 more than in 2015.

The report also shows that parishes are increasingly using modern means of communication and are active in the pastoral care of families. In 2016, almost 60 percent of parishes had their own websites. There are dioceses in which about 70-80 percent of the parishes publish newspapers. In 2016, there were 2,600 family counseling centers in Poland. More than 100,000 people benefited from these centres.

Fr Wojciech Sadlon SAC, director of the Institute for Catholic Church Statistics in Poland said: "You can see that people become less and less open to the spiritual sphere, although almost all Poles feel attached to Catholicism. This is shown by the relative stability in the last five years. In 2015, there was a slight increase in the percentage of people attending Sunday Mass and receiving Holy Communion. In 2016, the percentage of dominicantes and communicantes decreased. The number of baptisms and sacramental marriages increased, as well as the number of children who received the First Holy Communion increased."