The Catholic Church in Poland is set to count its faithful in order to get to know Poles’ religious habits.

The counting will be conducted on 24 October, which is an “average Sunday.” The annual count usually takes place in October or November. Last year, the faithful were counted on 11 October.

Last year’s figures show that the number of Poles who attend Sunday mass is decreasing while the number of the faithful who take Holy Communion is rising.

The faithful from Tarnow diocese, southern Poland, are most active with 70 percent attending Sunday mass. High turnout at Sunday mass was also reported in the Krakow archdiocese. More than 80 percent of Poles go to confession once a year and a half several times a year.

Statistics show that in spite of a decrease in the number of people who regularly attend masses, there is a growing number of parishes. In the past 40 years, the number of parishes in Poland almost doubled, amounting to 10,162.

The counting of the faithful in Poland has been conducted for over 30 years by the Institute of Statistics of the Catholic Church. (mg/jb)

Source: Dziennik Polski