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Religious Beliefs and Spirituality in Poland

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Poland has no official religion but majority of the population belong to the Roman Catholic. It is approximated that over 90% of Poles are nominal Roman Catholic. Still 58% of the total populations are actively practicing their selected religious beliefs. The rest of the population belongs to the Orthodox Church (around 509,500), Greek Catholics (123,000), Jehovah's Witnesses (about 122,757) and Lutherans–Augsburg (almost 87,300). Other founded Christian appellations include the Baptists, the Church of Christ, Old Catholic Mariavits, Methodists, the New Apostolic Church, Pentecostals, Polish-Catholics, Reformed Lutherans and Seventh-Day Adventists. There are about 5,200 members of the Muslim Religious Union and almost 5,100 people are Hare Krishnas. More than 60% of Poles attend church regularly.

The four branches of Catholicism in the country are the Armenian, Byzantine-Ukrainian, Neo-Uniate and Roman Catholics. The Roman Catholics is the biggest and in 1998 exceeded 25 million (9,990 parishes and roughly 28,000 priests). There are 138 recorded church and spiritual associations in Poland. Pope John Paul II comes from Poland, therefore Catholicism's influence and popularity should follow as no literal surprise. As a matter of fact, the Catholic Church has acted as an important political part during Poland's history. Some Poles found sanctuary in the churches protected throughout the repressing years of the communist government. Although preponderantly Roman Catholic, Poland is dwelling to other spiritual groups, suchlike Russian Orthodox and respective Protestant offset.