Religion in Poland Trivia Quiz

Answer: Christianity - Roman Catholicism

Belief in God has been a principle and underpinning mainstay of Polish life, culture and identity. The creation of the Polish state was associated with adoption of Christianity by its ruler, Mieszko I, in 966, when he was baptised as a Catholic after he married Princess Doubravka of Bohemia, a devout Christian. Today around 90% of the Polish population is Roman Catholic, with the majority actively practicing the faith. The Catholic Church has played an important role in the cultural history of the country and, indeed it has played a political role as well, when it supported Polish independence and helped the country remain unified in difficult times, such as during the partition of Poland in the 19th century.

The Church as a whole, and in particular the Roman Catholic church, is widely respected by Poles and has been integrated as a symbol of Polish heritage and culture.

Answer: Poland Is the only country out of the eight with Roman Catholicism exceeding 90% of the population

There are two important factors in church denomination in the region around Poland:
1. The suppression of the church and organised religion as a whole by the Soviet regime in the cold war era has meant the region is seen as one of the most irreligious regions in the world, Poland being the exception.
2. Poland is the centre of Catholicism in central Europe:
- Germany is a state almost equally divided between the irreligious, the Catholics and the Protestant Lutherans. However the Catholic majority are by far on the eastern side of the country near where the (present) borders of Poland are. (The borders of Poland have changed radically over the years - both with Germany on its west and with Russia to the east).
- The Czech republic is one of the most irreligious countries in the world with practicing Christians (mainly Protestants) a small minority.
-Slovakia, once part of Czechoslovakia, by contrast has a sizable christian population and a Catholic propensity concentrated near the Polish border
-Lithuania is predominantly Roman Catholic once you allow for the irreligious component. This is not surprising, given Poland and Lithuania were the same country (as a commonwealth or dual state which was a bi-confederation of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch, both King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania) from 1569-1795.
- Russia, Ukraine and Belarus have sizable Christian populations given the large proportion of irreligious people. The predominant religion is Eastern Orthodoxy with Belarus having a significant Catholic population concentrated near its Polish border.

Answer: Flight and expulsion of Germans from Polish territory

Between 1944 and 1948 about 31 million people, including both ethnic Germans and German citizens, were permanently or temporarily moved from Central and Eastern Europe into Allied-occupied Germany and Austria. This included around four million from Poland, which reclaimed additional Polish land that had been claimed by Germany after WWI and during WWII. Nazi Germany had a plan to populate Polish, Czech and Baltic lands with German citizens to further expand their empire.

This plan was never completed, and the Germans returned of their own volition or were forced back after the war. By far, these Germans were mainly Protestants. Added to this were former Poles who had fled their homeland after the invasion (by Germany on September 1 1939 and Russia 16 days later}.

These Poles returned after the war and were Catholic by majority. The Jewish population annihilation at the time also increased the proportion of Catholics now residing in Poland.

Answer: Yes

The Eastern Orthodox Church is officially known as the Orthodox Catholic Church, and is the second-largest Christian church. It has 200-260 million baptised members, with over half a million in Poland in 2011. It functions as a communion of autonomous churches, each governed by its own bishops. It is based principally in Russia. The church has no central doctrine which can be considered analogous to the authoritative decisions of the Bishop of Rome. However, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is recognised by all as "primus inter pares" of the bishops, meaning first among equals.

Eastern Orthodox theology is based on the Nicene Creed, which in turn is that the the church teaches that there is one, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic church established by Jesus Christ and that the church bishops are the successors of Christ's disciples.

The Polish Orthodox Church is one of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Churches. The church was established in 1924, to accommodate Orthodox Christians of Polish descent when Poland regained its independence as a sovereign state after the First World War.

Answer: Lutheran

The Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession can trace its roots back to the Reformation, which started in October 1517. The first Lutheran sermons occurred in Poland in 1518. The first Lutheran dean, Johann Heb, was sent to the Breslau in 1523, and Lutheranism spread further round the Polish lands. However in the inter-war period, there were several Lutheran Churches with an added complication of Lutheranism being associated with Germany. From a population of over half a million followers, during this period the numbers diminished to a few thousand, with Evangelical-Augsburg Church emerging as a well organised Church system which then gained followers from other declining Lutheran groups in Poland. Over 50 000 of the 70 000 followers are in the Silesia region near the Slovak border.

The Pentecostal Church is the second biggest Protestant group in Poland, with over 20 000 followers as determined by the 2011 census.

Answer: The Tartars

Tartary was a larger Turkic speaking region that spread from the Caspian Sea to west of the Urals and into what today is Mongolia. The Tartar tribes arrived in Poland in the 14th century and settled in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. They were talented warriors and capable merchants. They were permitted to settle in Lithuania and modern-day eastern Poland and to keep their Sunni religion in exchange for military service. These Polish Tartars became integrated into Polish society over time, but maintained separate regiments in the armed forces, where they were lauded for their bravery and their military prowess. The small Tartar population suffered badly at the hands of the Germans in the second World War where they were decimated through the AB Action. However, the faith and a small cluster prevailed in the north-east section near the Lithuania border.

Poland also has a very small Muslim population from contemporary immigration from the Middle East.

Answer: Black Madonna

The Black Madonna of Czestochowa, also known as Our Lady of Czestochowa, is a much revered icon of the Virgin Mary. The four-foot-high painting shows the Virgin Mary gesturing with her right hand toward Jesus as the source of salvation. The child extends his right hand toward the viewer in blessing.

It is kept at the Jasna Gora Monastery in Czestochowa. Poland. At least three Pontiffs have recognised the worshipped icon, beginning with Pope Clement XI in 1717, Pope Pius X in October 1909, and Pope John Paul II on 26 August 1982. Pilgrimages occur from many other Polish centres: a pilgrimage has left Warsaw every August 6 since 1711, a 140-mile trek which takes nine days.

This was very difficult during the German Nazi occupation. Pope John Paul II secretly visited as a pilgrim during this time.

Answer: He further separated the Catholic Church from other Christian and Jewish denominations.

In 1958, aged 38, Karol Wojtyla became the youngest bishop in Poland. His rise to the papacy was meteoric: he was elected Pope in 1978, taking his name (John Paul II) after his predecessor (who only reigned for 32 days before he died). Pope John Paul II travelled extensively, to 129 countries in fact, to help spread the word about the Catholic Church. According to Cristina Odone of the "Catholic Herald" in 1991, the Pope's greatest wish was "to place his Church at the heart of a new religious alliance that would bring together Jews, Muslims and Christians in a great religious armada".

He beatified 1,340 people, and canonised 483, more than any of his predecessors, and was beatified himself in 2011. Nine years after his death, when two miracles had been attributed to him, he was canonised in 2014.

Answer: Poland was one of the first countries to have a culture of religious tolerance.

During the period of the Kingdom of Poland, which commenced in 1025 and lasted until the first of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealths created in 1569, Poland was Europe's most tolerant country in Europe. Scholars used the term "paradisus iudaeorum" (Latin: "Paradise of the Jews"). Poland became a home for persecuted Jews and those driven out of other less tolerant European communities.

It has been estimated that about three-quarters of the world's Jews lived in Poland by the middle of the 16th century.

This ended during the Partitions of Poland, where Poland ceased to exist in 1772, with the following discrimination and persecution of Jews by the Russian Empire. However, with the reinstatement of Poland as a sovereign state after WWI, it became once again the focus of the European Jewish population, with a Jewish population exceeding three million despite the growing problem of antisemitism in Europe at this time, not just in the political environment, but within the general population as well.

Answer: Less than 4000

After WWII approximately 200,000 Jewish survivors registered at the Central Committee of Polish Jews. Most of these were ex-pats who returned to Poland, 136,000 arriving from the Soviet Union alone. However, the Soviet Communist Party was hostile to both religion and private enterprise, and therefore dismantled Jewish institutions, causing another Polish Jew exodus.

In 1946-1947 Poland was the only Eastern Bloc country to allow free Jewish emigration (aliyah) to Israel without visas or exit permits.

A great many left ostensibly to go to Israel, but many went to North and South America and Australia. In 1968, after the Arab-Israeli war caused an anti_Zionist stance by the Soviet overseers of Poland, most of the remaining Jews left Poland for Israel. When communism in the Eatern Bloc failed in 1989 after the fall of the Communist regime, Polish Jews who were Polish citizens before World War II, were allowed to renew Polish citizenship and residency.

At this time it was estimated there were 3800 Jews in Poland.

However, the democratic government that was then installed has meant there has been a Jewish renaissance in Poland, with Jewish festivals being held in many centres and synagogues being rebuilt or restored.