While Poland is secularizing, Catholicism still shapes its politics in subtle but significant ways.

The role of religion in Poland is changing, but not disappearing. Aleks Szczerbiak, professor of politics at the University of Sussex, explores this transformation in his latest book, Political Parties and Religion in Post-Communist Poland. 

At a book launch on 28 November at the Embassy of Poland in London, Szczerbiak discussed the evolving relationship between Polish society and the Catholic Church with journalist Jakub Krupa of The Guardian.

Secularization and Its Limits

Since the fall of communism in 1989, Catholicism’s influence has been declining, accelerating the country’s secularization. Poland now has “the fastest secularizing group of young people,” Szczerbiak noted, with the largest generational divide in attitudes toward faith in Europe.

Yet, religion remains significant. “Poland is secularizing, but it is not secularizing as fast as a lot of liberals would like to say,” Szczerbiak said. 

According to Pew Research and the Institute for Catholic Church Statistics, around 87% of Poles identify as Catholic and roughly 30% still regularly attend church. These figures make Poland one of Europe’s most Catholic countries, comparable only to Croatia.

“Pretty much every significant right-wing party was pro-Church at the beginning of the transition”

Catholicism is not only a matter of faith or routine, but an integral part of Poland’s cultural identity. “A lot of national symbols are religious symbols,” Szczerbiak said, pointing to symbols such as the Black Madonna of Czestochowa or traditional Easter celebrations.

Politicization of the Church

Though Catholicism is tied to Polish identity and customs, the society remains split over how much influence the Church should have as an institution in public life and politics today.  

“People have very strong views about the clergy either way. Some people think clergy are strong authority figures that people should respect and follow their teachings. Other people think that they are hypocrites,” Szczerbiak said. One reason for these passionate reactions, he noted, is the church’s involvement in highly sensitive issues.

“These are kind of civilizational questions – what we might call moral, cultural questions like abortion,” Szczerbiak said. He recalled how in 2020, Poland tightened its abortion laws through a Constitutional Tribunal ruling with strong support of the Catholic Church, introducing a near-total ban that triggered protests across the country.

That decision came under the rule of the right-wing party Law and Justice (PiS), which led Poland from 2015 to 2023. “Generally, they’ve tried to be very careful about pushing the religious agenda too far,” Szczerbiak said, noting that PiS tried to frame its opinions as rooted in Christian values rather than aligning itself directly with the institutional church.

With PiS out of power, attention has turned to Poland’s current prime minister, Donald Tusk of the center-right Civic Coalition. Szczerbiak, whose new book is his fourth on Polish contemporary politics, described him as pragmatic, adapting to an electorate that has grown increasingly secular over time. “At heart, Donald Tusk is a liberal,” he said. Tusk’s liberal roots date back to the 1990s, when he voted against the restrictive abortion law as leader of the centrist Liberal Democratic Congress. Yet, although his current government promised to lighten the current near-ban, so far it has failed to do so.

Even though the Catholic Church weighs in on political decisions such as abortion, it has never formally endorsed any political party. “The Church didn’t have to do that because pretty much every significant right-wing party was pro-Church at the beginning of the transition,” Szczerbiak said of the situation in the early years of democracy. Things may be changing now, with the advent of secular far-right parties in Poland.

This broad support has contributed to a paradox; despite Poland’s large Catholic population, the country has never had a successful Christian Democratic party. Instead, the Catholic hierarchy has found different ways to exert its influence and conservative political views through such channels as Radio Maryja.

For the first time, “there is a secular right developing in Poland”

Apart from what some see as the Church’s excessive politicization, a number of sexual abuse scandals have hurt its reputation. In 2021, the Church published information about 368 alleged incidents of sexual abuse by clergymen between 1958 and 2020. Its slow response and perceived lack of accountability have further accelerated secularization, especially among youth.

The scandals have helped undermine public trust in the Church, the Catholic news service OSV wrote, citing a recent Polish Institute for Market and Social Research Foundation poll that found that the level of distrust in the Church has doubled since 2016, to 47%.

While the Church has implemented some reforms since the scandal broke five years ago, a commission charged with investigating the scale of abuse has yet to issue a full report, OSV wrote.

The Rise of the Radical Secular Right

The developing relationship between politics and the Church is also reflected in the rise of Confederation (Kondeferacja), described by Szczerbiak as “a radical right, free-market party.” In the 2025 presidential elections, its candidate Slawomir Mentzen came in third, receiving 14.8% of the vote.

As Szczerbiak noted, unlike other right-wing parties in Poland, Confederation does not have any relationship with the Catholic Church. “They represent the secular right, and it is the first time there is a secular right developing in Poland,” he said, explaining that right-wing political views have traditionally gone hand in hand with support of the church – until now.

As Szczerbiak has written in his blog on Polish politics, Confederation draws particular support from young men living in small towns or rural areas, who see few chances for career advancement and are skeptical of state intervention.

This trend poses a challenge to liberal parties that had expected small-town young voters to support them. “They were hoping that young people would vote for them because they were favoring things like liberalizing abortion or supporting same-sex couples. But they are not, they’re voting for Confederation,” Szczerbiak added.

Confederation’s rise marks a shift in the long-standing close ties between right-wing politics and the Catholic Church in Poland. Together with rapid secularization and declining trust in the institution, public attitudes toward the Church, especially among the young, are changing. Yet, despite its weakened position, Catholicism continues to shape national identity and influence public debates on key political and social questions.

Adela Cerna is pursuing a master’s degree in journalism, media, and globalization at City St George’s, University of London. She recently completed an editorial internship at Transitions.