No Longer Society's Only Voice

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Certainly the church's forays into politics haven't yielded all it hoped. Political homilies from the pulpit have not halted the continued success of the post-communists. Roman Graczyk, an analyst from the liberal daily Gazeta Wyborcza, believes that the church expected to be rewarded for its salutary role in 1989 with an explicit role in the new Constitution and a guaranteed role in the legislative process. Says Graczyk: "It burned its fingers, as we know, and it gave up part of these aspirations."

Glemp appears unmoved by these temporal defeats. "Ten years ago many forecast that with the arrival of democracy in Poland, the practice of the faith would collapse," he says. "This didn't come true." Indeed, nowhere in Europe does faith seem as strong as in Poland. Seminary enrollment is up 10% from last year, and priests in Poland are on average a full 20 years younger than their counterparts in Germany. "By tradition and history, we pray more than other people do," says Glemp. "There are fluctuations, some ups and downs, but I don't think that will change." But the context of that faith is bound to change in a Poland still very much under construction, and the church will have to adapt as well.