Tightening or Tearing the Immanent Frame? Polish Catholicism and the Coronavirus Epidemic

In this article, I analyze the change in the internal dynamics of Catholicism during the pandemic. In the first part, I present the dynamics of institutional actions caused by the sense of threat posed by COVID-19. Then, I characterize the dynamism of Polish Catholicism, emphasizing its 1) features such as: mass character, interpenetration of parishes and local communities in the countryside, the role of small pastoral groups; 2) directions of change, such as: erosion of community rituals, institutional saturation, rupture of the continuity of religious socialization, decline in trust in Catholicism; 3) factors of religious socialization, such as family and media. Analysis of the available empirical data leads me to the conclusion that the epidemic has imposed a specific form on Polish Catholicism, which has limited the range of interactions and collective practices and strengthens the process of weakening of religious collective practices and ties with the parish, observed for at least two decades. At the same time, the epidemic strengthens the process of differentiation and the key connection of family ties and religiosity for Polish Catholicism.