:Religion in Poland

For centuries the ancient West Slavic and Lechitic peoples inhabiting the lands of modern-day Poland have practiced various forms of paganism known as Rodzimowierstwo (“native faith”).{{Cite web|url=http://www.polishtoledo.com/pagan/|title=Polish Paganism - Polish Toledo - Archive of Okana|website=polishtoledo.com}}Gniazdo – Rodzima wiara i kultura, nr 2(7)/2009 – Ratomir Wilkowski: Rozważania o wizerunku rodzimowierstwa na przykładzie...{{Cite web|url=http://rkp.org.pl/|title=Rodzimy Kościół Polski|website=Rodzimy Kościół Polski}}{{Cite web|url=https://wildhunt.org/2016/07/paganism-in-poland.html|title=Paganism in Poland | Living, News, Paganism, World|date=6 July 2016|website=The Wild Hunt}} From the beginning of its statehood, different religions coexisted in Poland. With the baptism of Poland in 966, the old pagan religions were gradually eradicated over the next few centuries during the Christianization of Poland. However, this did not put an end to pagan beliefs in the country. The persistence was demonstrated by a series of rebellions known as the Pagan reaction in the first half of the 11th century, which also showed elements of a peasant uprising against landowners and feudalism,{{Cite web|url=http://www.krakowpost.com/6956/2013/08/resurgence-of-pre-christian-beliefs-in-poland|title=Resurgence of Pre-Christian Beliefs in Poland|first=Grażyna|last=Zawada|date=29 August 2013}} and led to a mutiny that destabilized the country.{{cite book|author=Gerard Labuda|title=Mieszko II król Polski: 1025–1034 : czasy przełomu w dziejach państwa polskiego |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gb8gAAAAIAAJ|access-date=27 March 2013|year=1992|publisher=Secesja|isbn=978-83-85483-46-5|page=102}}{{cite book|author=Gerard Labuda|title=Mieszko II król Polski: 1025–1034 : czasy przełomu w dziejach państwa polskiego|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gb8gAAAAIAAJ|access-date=27 March 2013|year=1992 |publisher=Secesja|isbn=978-83-85483-46-5|page=102}}{{cite book|title=Słownik starożytności słowiańskich: encyklopedyczny zarys kultury słowian od czasów najdawniejszych|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KQ_vAAAAMAAJ|access-date=27 March 2013|year=1967|publisher=Zkład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich |page=247|quote="Widziano w M. wodza powstania pogańsko-ludowego"}}{{cite book|author1=Oskar Halecki |author2=W. F. Reddaway |author3=J. H. Penson |title=The Cambridge History of Poland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N883AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA34|access-date=27 March 2013|publisher=CUP Archive|isbn=978-1-00-128802-4|page=34}} By the 13th century Catholicism had become the dominant religion throughout the country. Nevertheless, Christian Poles coexisted with a significant Jewish segment of the population.{{cite book|author=Piotr Stefan Wandycz|title=The United States and Poland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_XaFaNshCrkC&pg=PA15|year=1980|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-92685-1|page=15}}{{cite book|author1=Jerzy Lukowski|author2=W. H. Zawadzki|title=A Concise History of Poland |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HMylRh-wHWEC&pg=PA9|access-date=5 April 2012|date=6 July 2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-85332-3|pages=9–10}}

In the 15th century, the Hussite Wars and the pressure from the papacy led to religious tensions between Catholics and the emergent Hussite and subsequent Protestant community, particularly after the Edict of Wieluń (1424). The Protestant movement gained a significant following in Poland and, though Roman Catholicism retained a dominant position within the state, the liberal Warsaw Confederation (1573) guaranteed wide religious tolerance. But the Counter-Reformation's reactionary movement succeeded in reducing the scope for tolerance by the late 17th and early 18th century – as evidenced by events such as the Tumult of Toruń (1724).{{cite journal|last=Hillar|first=Marian|title=The Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791: Myth and Reality|journal=The Polish Review|date=1992|volume=37|issue=2|pages=185–207|jstor=25778627}}{{cite book|author=Jerzy Jan Lerski|title=Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QTUTqE2difgC&pg=PA113|year=1996 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-26007-0|page=113}}{{cite book|author=Beata Cieszynska|chapter=Polish Religious Persecution as a Topic in British Writing in the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Century|editor1=Richard Unger|editor2=Jakub Basista|title=Britain and Poland-Lithuania: Contact and Comparison from the Middle Ages to 1795|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VB51DPui-TsC&pg=PA243|date=2 May 2008|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-16623-3|page=243}}

When Poland was divided between its neighbors in the late eighteenth century, some Poles were subjected to religious discrimination in the newly expanded German Prussia and Russia.{{cite web|url=http://web.ku.edu/~eceurope/hist557/lect11.htm|title=Anna M|website=Web.ku.edu|access-date=9 January 2018}}

Prior to the Second World War, some 3,500,000 Polish Jews (about 10% of the national population) lived in the Polish Second Republic, largely in cities. Between the Germano-Soviet invasions of Poland and the end of World War II, over 90% of Jews in Poland perished.{{cite book |last=Lukas |first=Richard C. |author-link=Richard C. Lukas |year=1989 |title=Out of the Inferno: Poles Remember the Holocaust |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-1692-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/outofinferno00rela |url-access=registration |quote=The estimates of Jewish survivors in Poland,. |pages=[https://archive.org/details/outofinferno00rela/page/5 5], 13, 111, 201}}
{{cite book |year=2001 |title=The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles under German Occupation, 1939–1944 |publisher=Hippocrene Books |isbn=978-0-7818-0901-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lv1mAAAAMAAJ&q=editions:lC7HhINUjXIC%20Google |page=13}} The Holocaust (called the "Shoah" in Hebrew) took the lives of more than three million mostly Ashkenazi Jews in Poland. Comparatively few managed to survive the German occupation or to escape eastward into the territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union, beyond the reach of the Nazi Germany. As elsewhere in Europe during the interwar period, there was both official and popular anti-Semitism in Poland, at times encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church and by some political parties (particularly the right-wing endecja and small ONR groups and factions), but not directly by the Polish government itself.[https://archive.org/details/polandsholocaust00piot/page/1 Poland's Holocaust] by Tadeusz Piotrowski. Published by McFarland. From Preface: policy of genocide.

According to a 2011 survey by Ipsos MORI, 85% of the Poles remain Christians; 8% are irreligious, atheist, or agnostic; 2% adhere to unspecified other religions; and 5% did not answer the question.[http://www.fgi-tbff.org/sites/default/files/elfinder/FGIImages/Research/fromresearchtopolicy/ipsos_mori_briefing_pack.pdf Views on globalisation and faith] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117013643/http://www.fgi-tbff.org/sites/default/files/elfinder/FGIImages/Research/fromresearchtopolicy/ipsos_mori_briefing_pack.pdf |date=17 January 2013 }}. Ipsos MORI, 5 July 2011.

According to an opinion poll conducted in "a representative group of 1,000 people" by the Centre for Public Opinion Research (CBOS), published in 2015, 39% of Poles claim they are "believers following the Church's laws", while 52% answered that they are "believers in their own understanding and way", and 5% stated that they are atheists.{{cite web |author=Boguszewski, Rafał |date=February 2015 |title=Zmiany W Zakresie Podstanowych Wskaźników Religijności Polaków Po Śmierci Jana Pawla II |url=http://cbos.pl/SPISKOM.POL/2015/K_026_15.PDF |access-date=23 January 2017 |publisher=CBOS |pages=6}}{{cite web |date=23 January 2017 |title=Wierzę w Boga Ojca, ale nie w Kościół powszechny |url=https://oko.press/wierze-boga-ojca-kosciol-powszechny-wierza-polacy/ |access-date=9 January 2018 |website=Oko.press}}

File:Religion in Poland.png

The Polish Constitution assures freedom of religion for all. State and religion are formally separated in Poland. The Constitution also grants national and ethnic minorities the rights to establish educational and cultural institutions and institutions designed to protect religious identity, as well as to participate in the resolution of matters connected with their cultural identities.{{wikisource-inline|Constitution of the Republic of Poland}}

Religious organizations in the Republic of Poland can register their institution with the Ministry of Interior and Administration, creating a record of churches and other religious organizations which operate under separate Polish laws. This registration is not necessary, but it does serve the laws guaranteeing freedom of religious practice.

Slavic Rodzimowiercy groups registered with the Polish authorities in 1995 are the Native Polish Church (Rodzimy Kościół Polski), which represents a pagan tradition which goes back to pre-Christian faiths and continues Władysław Kołodziej's 1921 Holy Circle of Worshipper of Światowid (Święte Koło Czcicieli Światowida), and the Polish Slavic Church (Polski Kościół Słowiański).Simpson, Scott (2000). Native Faith: Polish Neo-Paganism at the Brink of the 21st Century This native Slavic religion is promoted also by the Native Faith Association (Zrzeszenie Rodzimej Wiary, ZRW), and the Association for Tradition founded in 2015.

Around 125 faith groups and minor religions are registered in Poland. Data for 2018 provided by Główny Urząd Statystyczny, Poland's Central Statistical Office.{{cite book|url=https://stat.gov.pl/download/gfx/portalinformacyjny/pl/defaultaktualnosci/5515/1/21/1/maly_rocznik_statystyczny_polski_2019.pdf|title= Mały Rocznik Statystyczny Polski 2019 (Concise Statistical Yearbook of Poland 2019)|chapter=Niektóre wyznania religijne w Polsce w 2018 r. (Selected religious denominations in Poland in 2018)|journal= Mały Rocznik Statystyczny Polski = Concise Statistical Yearbook of Poland|publisher=Główny Urząd Statystyczny|pages=114–115|year=2019|issn=1640-3630|location=Warszawa|language=pl, en}}

File:Cathedral Lock in Poznań (east).jpg|St. Peter and St. Paul Cathedral in Poznań

File:Krs13DSC 0283.JPG|St. Anna's Catholic Church in Warsaw-Wilanów

File:Katedra mariawicka w Płocku.JPG|Old Catholic Mariavite Temple of Mercy and Charity in Płock

File:St.peter and st. paul cathedral in legnica.jpg|St. Peter and St. Paul Cathedral in Legnica

File:Brochów (woj mazowieckie)-kosc Rocha i Jana Chrzciciela.jpg|Saint Roch and John Church in Brochów

File:Czerwinsk8.jpg|Romanesque church in Czerwińsk by Vistula river

File:Wrocław - Archikatedra św. Jana Chrzciciela (1).jpg|Cathedral in Wrocław

File:PL_Lublin_Katedra1.jpg|Cathedral in Lublin

File:Facade bazylika swietej rodziny.jpg|Cathedral Basilica of the Holy Family in Częstochowa

File:Kościół_św._Anny_w_Warszawie_2020.jpg|Catholic St. Anne's Church in Warsaw

File:CerkiewStDuchaBialystok.JPG|Eastern Orthodox Church of the Holy Spirit in Białystok

File:Nabożeństwo Niedziela Palmowa Sobór metropolitalny Świętej Równej Apostołom Marii Magdaleny w Warszawie.JPG|Eastern Orthodox Metropolitan Cathedral in Warsaw

File:Zachęta i kościół św. Trójcy od strony placu Piłsudskiego 2019.jpg|Lutheran Holy Trinity Church in Warsaw

File:Lutheran Church of Jesus in Cieszyn, Poland, July 2020.jpg|Lutheran Jesus Church in Cieszyn

File:Nożyk Synagogue 01.jpg|Nożyk Synagogue in Warsaw

File:Synagoge zum Weißen Storch Fotografin Isabelle Knispel.jpg|White Stork Synagogue in Wrocław

File:Podlaskie - Krynki - Kruszyniany - Meczet 20120501 05.JPG|Mosque in Kruszyniany

File:Meczet Gdansk 1.jpg|Mosque in Gdańsk

File:Światowid na tle Wawelu.jpg|Światowid monument by Wawel in Kraków

File:2012-08 Woodstock 14.jpg|International Society for Krishna Consciousness at Pol'and'Rock Festival

File:2018 Gompa Drophan Ling w Darnkowie 04.jpg|Gompa Drophan Ling in Darnków

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• The Most Holy Virgin Mary, Queen of Poland
• Catholic Church in Poland
• Eastern Orthodoxy in Poland
• Protestantism in Poland
• Islam in Poland
• Buddhism in Poland
• Hinduism in Poland
• History of the Jews in Poland
• Bahá'í Faith in Poland
• Polish anti-religious campaign (1945–1990)
• Irreligion in Poland

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{{Wikiquote}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20050403174301/http://www.mswia.gov.pl/wyzn_zw_in.html List of churches and religious unions registered according to special legislation]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20050403172322/http://www.mswia.gov.pl/wyzn_zw.html List of churches and religious unions from the Register of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration]
• [http://www.iskk.pl Institute for Catholic Church Statistics]

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