Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: Is Poland a Catholic country?
While a number of religious communities operate in Poland, the majority of the country's population adheres to Christianity. Within this, the largest grouping is the Roman Catholic Church, with 87.5% of Poles in 2011 identifying as Roman Catholic (census conducted by the Central Statistical Office (GUS)).[1] According to the Institute for Catholic Church Statistics, 36.7% of Polish Catholic believers attended Sunday church services in 2016.[2]
KIK was founded after Gomułka's Thaw in communist Poland in 1956, evolving into a mild Catholic-center opposition group in communist Poland. Its purpose was to stimulate independent thought and bring Catholics within Poland information about Catholic philosophy from countries outside the Socialist Bloc. Initially, only four clubs were authorized by the government: Kraków, Poznan, Warsaw, and Wrocław. They distributed information to Catholics throughout Poland via publications in "Tygodnik Powszechny" (The Universal Weekly) and the monthly "Znak" (The Sign). 
In "Summi Pontificatus", Pius expressed dismay at the killing of non-combatants in the Nazi/Soviet invasion of Poland and expressed hope for the "resurrection" of that country. The Nazis and Soviets commenced a persecution of the Catholic Church in Poland. In April 1940, the Vatican advised the US government that its efforts to provide humanitarian aid had been blocked by the Germans and that the Holy See had been forced to seek indirect channels through which to direct its aid. Michael Phayer, a critic of Pius XII, assesses his policy as having been to "refuse to censure" the "German" invasion and annexation of Poland. This, Phayer wrote, was regarded as a "betrayal" by many Polish Catholics and clergy, who saw his appointment of Hilarius Breitinger as the apostolic administrator for the Wartheland in May 1942, a "implicit recognition" of the breakup of Poland; the opinions of the "Volksdeutsche", mostly German Catholic minorities living in occupied Poland, were more mixed. Phayer argues that Pius XII—both before and during his papacy—consistently "deferred to Germany at the expense of Poland", and saw Germany—not Poland—as critical to "rebuilding a large Catholic presence in Central Europe". In May 1942, Kazimierz Papée, Polish ambassador to the Vatican, complained that Pius had failed to condemn the recent wave of atrocities in Poland; when Cardinal Secretary of State Maglione replied that the Vatican could not document individual atrocities, Papée declared, "when something becomes notorious, proof is not required". Although Pius XII received frequent reports about atrocities committed by and/or against Catholics, his knowledge was incomplete; for example, he wept after the war on learning that Cardinal Hlond had banned German liturgical services in Poland.
Catholicism continues to play an important role in the lives of many Poles and the Roman Catholic Church in Poland enjoys social prestige and political influence, despite repression experienced under Communist rule.[3] Its members regard it as a repository of Polish heritage and culture.[4] Poland lays claim to having the highest proportion of Catholic citizens of any country in Europe except for Malta (including more than in Italy, Spain and Ireland).
Catholicism had a presence in Poland stretching back almost 1,000 years. The historian Richard J. Evans wrote that the Catholic Church was the institution that, "more than any other had sustained Polish national identity over the centuries". By 1939, around 65% of Poles professed to be Catholic. The invasion of predominantly Catholic Poland by Nazi Germany in 1939 ignited the Second World War. Britain and France declared war on Germany as a result of the invasion, while the Soviet Union invaded the Eastern half of Poland in accordance with an agreement reached with Hitler. The Catholic Church in Poland was about to face decades of repression, both at Nazi and Communist hands.
At first the agents of counter-reformation in Poland focused on persuasion, through they also relied heavily on legal discrimination, particularly the anti-Reformation royal decrees of Sigismund I of Poland. The Catholic Church in Poland succeeded in subordinating the Eastern Orthodox Church through the Union of Brest-Litovsk (1595–1596). Jesuit schools gained significant renown at that time. From the 17th century, agents of counter-reformation became increasingly intolerant, succeeding in introducing censorship, including the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Some Protestant denominations were banned, while others lost many churches and adherents. Construction of non-Catholic churches was banned in 1632. The pacifist Polish Unitarians (Polish Brethren) were expelled from Poland in 1658 for refusing to aid the country in the time of military need. In 1668 the Sejm made it illegal for Catholics to convert to another faith; in 1673 non-Catholics were forbidden to be ennobled. By the first half of the 18th century, Protestants were barred from most civil offices, including being elected to the Sejm.
Following with the forcible conversion of Eastern Catholics in the USSR to Orthodoxy, the Polish government called on the Orthodox church in Poland to assume 'pastoral care' of the eastern Catholics in Poland. After the removal of Metropolitan Dionizy from leadership of the Polish Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Macarius was placed in charge. He was from western Ukraine (previously eastern Poland) and who had been instrumental in the compulsory conversion of eastern Catholics to orthodoxy there. Polish security forces assisted him in suppressing resistance in his taking control of Eastern Catholic parishes. Many Eastern Catholics who remained in Poland after the postwar border adjustments were resettled in Western Poland in the newly acquired territories from Germany. The state in Poland gave the POC a greater number of privileges than the Roman Catholic Church in Poland; the state even gave money to this church, although it often defaulted on promised payments, leading to a perpetual financial crisis for the POC.
In 1997, Catholic bishops in Poland were successful in opposing the introduction of provisions into the country's constitution that would bar discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation. In 2010, the European Union criticized schools and colleges owned by the Catholic Church in Poland for refusing to employ staff that were openly gay. In January 2013, the Catholic Church in Poland publicly thanked members of parliament for voting down a bill that would have allowed same-sex civil partnerships.
The church is one diocese in Poland and Belarus, the other in Germany, and also has a foreign province in Brazil and a territorial prefecture in the United Kingdom. As a whole there are 10 parishes, 23 ministers working in ministry (including 4 bishops and 1 bishop - elect), about 5500 faithful in five countries. The Cathedral of the Church is in Łódź, while the seat of the curia in Wojcieszów. There is also the Order of the Friars Minor of Divine Mercy, which is based in Lodz - Fr. Kazimierz Dorocinski. At the Old Catholic Church in the Republic of Poland there is also the Church Seminary of the Old Catholic Church, where the teaching of 13 Church leaders will begin in September.
Ever since Poland officially adopted Latin Christianity in 966, the Catholic Church has played an important religious, cultural and political role in the country. Identifying oneself as Catholic distinguished Polish culture and nationality from neighboring Germany, especially eastern and northern Germany, which is mostly Lutheran, and the countries to the east which are Orthodox. During times of foreign oppression the Catholic Church was a cultural guard in the fight for independence and national survival. For instance, the Polish abbey in Częstochowa, which successfully resisted a siege in the Swedish invasion of Poland in the 17th century, became a symbol of national resistance to occupation. The establishment of a communist regime controlled by the Soviet Union following World War II allowed the church to continue fulfilling this role, although recent allegations suggest there was some minor collaboration between Polish clergy and the regime.
On 21–22 July 2017 the Extraordinary Synod of the Old Catholic Church in the Republic of Poland took place. July 22, 2017 On the second day of the Synod, as planned, the bishop of the Old Catholic Church in Poland were ordained. Bishop. E. Artur Wiciński, who according to the applicable Canon Law of the Old Catholic Church in Poland received the title of Archbishop, according to the historical tradition of the Church during the time of Archbishop Wladyslaw Faron, where the Church Superior received the title of archbishop of the community. During the same synod a formal election of Rev. Robert Matysiak for the Bishop of the Diocese of Germany of the Old Catholic Church in Poland.
During the first half of the 20th century the Church in Brazil had a huge expansion in number of faithful, due to the mass immigration of migrants from Catholic countries, such as Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria and Poland. Moreover, there were countless conversions of immigrants from other non-Catholic countries, such as Japan and Middle East. In 1923, the Servant of God Fr. Domingos Chohachi Nakamura was the first Japanese missionary to move to Brazil to work on behalf of the non-Catholic Japanese living in southeast Brazil. 
The Protestant Reformation also led to a strong reform movement in the Catholic Church called the Counter-Reformation, which aimed to reduce corruption as well as to improve and strengthen Catholic dogma. Two important groups in the Catholic Church who emerged from this movement were the Jesuits, who helped keep Spain, Portugal, Poland and other European countries within the Catholic fold, and the Oratorians of Saint Philip Neri, who ministered to the faithful in Rome, restoring their confidence in the Church of Jesus Christ that subsisted substantially in the Church of Rome. Still, the Catholic Church was somewhat weakened by the Reformation, portions of Europe were no longer under its sway and kings in the remaining Catholic countries began to take control of the church institutions within their kingdoms.
In the "Annuario Pontificio" the eight existing ordinariates of this kind are listed together with the fifteen (pre-diocesan) apostolic exarchates. Of these ordinariates, four (in Argentina, Brazil, France and Poland) are generically for all Eastern Catholics who lack a 'proper' diocesan jurisdiction of their own rite in the particular country and who are therefore entrusted to the care of a Latin Archbishop in the country. The one in Austria is for Catholics belonging to any of the fourteen particular Churches that use the Byzantine Rite. The other three (Ex-Soviet 'Eastern Europe', Greece and Romania) are exclusively for members of the Armenian Catholic Church.
Slovakia is the fourth most Catholic Slavic country, after Poland, Croatia and Slovenia.
In 2013 under the jurisdiction of the Old Catholic Church in the Republic of Poland has been accepted the parish of St. Stanislav, Marcin of Tours in Nowogrodek in Belarus, and in 2015 the Parish of Black Madonna of Czestochowa from Glasgow, Scotland, which on June 1, 2016 under the jurisdiction of the National Catholic Church in Poland, and on June 12, 2017 returned to the jurisdiction of the Old Catholic Church in Poland.
The Catholic Church is opposed to artificial contraception, abortion, and sexual intercourse outside marriage. This belief dates back to the first centuries of Christianity. While Roman Catholicism is not the only religion with such views, its religious doctrine is very powerful in influencing countries where most of the population is Catholic, and the few countries of the world with complete bans on abortion are Catholic-majority countries, and in Europe strict restrictions on abortion exist in the Catholic majority countries of Malta (complete ban), Ireland, Andorra, San Marino, Liechtenstein and to a lesser extent Poland and Monaco.
The Old Catholic Church in the Republic of Poland - a Polish-Catholic legally operating in Poland, entered under 110 on 1 April 1996 to a register of churches and other religious associations in Poland run by the Ministry of Interior and Administration. The Superior of the Church is bishop Dariusz Majewski. In 2016, there were 535 believers in Poland.
Lesser Poland is home to Poland's oldest university – Kraków's Jagiellonian University, which was established in 1364. For centuries, it was the only college of the province, and of the whole country. In December 1918, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin was opened, becoming second university of Lesser Poland. In 1944, also in Lublin, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University was established.
Following with the forcible conversion of Eastern Catholics in the USSR to Orthodoxy, the Polish government called on the Orthodox church in Poland to assume 'pastoral care' of the eastern Catholics in Poland. After the removal of Metropolitan Dionizy from leadership of the Polish Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Macarius was placed in charge. He was from western Ukraine (previously eastern Poland) and who had been instrumental in the compulsory conversion of eastern Catholics to orthodoxy there. Polish security forces assisted him in suppressing resistance in his taking control of Eastern Catholic parishes. Many eastern Catholics who remained in Poland after the postwar border adjustments were resettled in Western Poland in the newly acquired territories from Germany. The state in Poland gave the POC a greater number of privileges than the Roman Catholic Church in Poland; the state even gave money to this Church, although it often defaulted on promised payments, leading to a perpetual financial crisis for the POC.
Protestantism in Poland is the third largest faith in Poland, after the Roman Catholic Church (32,910,865) and the Polish Orthodox Church (504,400). As of 2011 there were approximately 80 registered Protestant denominations in Poland, with a total of 145,600 members. Most Protestants (mainly Lutherans) in the country live in historically Protestant regions such as Cieszyn Silesia and Warmia-Masuria and in major urban areas. However, almost all urban and rural areas in Poland are predominantly Roman Catholic. The only town in the country with a majority Protestant population is Wisła.
In the birthplace of the Catholic Church, there are a large number of dioceses principally centred in the countries of Italy, Spain, France, Ireland, and Poland. Italy has the largest number of dioceses per capita of any country, although Brazil has more in total. 
Following with the forcible conversion of Eastern Catholics in the USSR to Orthodoxy, the Polish government called on the Orthodox church in Poland to assume 'pastoral care' of the eastern Catholics in Poland. After the removal of Metropolitan Dionizy from leadership of the Polish Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Macarius was placed in charge. He was from western Ukraine (previously eastern Poland) and who had been instrumental in the compulsory conversion of eastern Catholics to orthodoxy there. Polish security forces assisted him in suppressing resistance in his taking control of Eastern Catholic parishes.[34] Many eastern Catholics who remained in Poland after the postwar border adjustments were resettled in Western Poland in the newly acquired territories from Germany. The state in Poland gave the POC a greater number of privileges than the Roman Catholic Church in Poland; the state even gave money to this Church, although it often defaulted on promised payments, leading to a perpetual financial crisis for the POC.
Poland was a multinational (Poles, Ruthenians, Jews, Germans, Italians, Dutch, Flemish, Armenians, Scots, Bohemians, Tatars) and multi-religious country (Roman Catholics, Orthodox, Greek Catholics, Calvinists, Lutherans, Muslims, Polish Brethren, Hussites and many others). All those nations and worships contributed to creation of the exceptional diversity of mannerist architecture and sculpture in Poland. The first half of the 17th century is marked by strong activity of the Jesuits and Counter-Reformation, which led to banishing of progressive Arians (Polish Brethren) in 1658 and which has its reflection in architecture (spread of baroque). Despite that Poland remain a "country without stakes". All the major wars and military conflicts were conducted far from the territory of today's Poland, so the country could developed equally. Those favorable conditions are the reason why mannerist architecture and sculpture in Poland left so many beautiful examples.
While relations between the two countries are largely defined by a shared religion, with both countries possessing predominant Roman Catholic populations with a strong devotion to Pope John Paul II, and a shared history of anti-authoritarian struggle, they are not as strong as Poland's relations with other countries in Southeast Asia — a state of affairs that has been defined by Tadeusz Iwiński as a relationship "that was broken by mistake".