Poland’s first online parish office has opened in the western city of Poznań, allowing Catholics to book a confession or arrange a baptism, wedding or funeral without leaving their homes.
The IT system used by parishioners in the city’s Łacina district has been hailed by its developers as the future of the church at a time when the number of people practising their faith is falling in Poland, a country where the majority of the population identify as Catholics.
Among services available via the parish’s website (pictured above), believers can, at any time of day or night, also order a Mass to be conducted for a personal intention or register a child for their first Holy Communion.
“It all started from the fact that people usually don’t like going to offices and dealing with all the paperwork,” the parish priest, Father Radosław Rakowski, told the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
He added that, for Poles, the Catholic church is strongly associated with bureaucracy and certificates, such as those related to marriages and christenings.
“And usually parish offices are open from 9am to 11am, or from 4pm to 5pm – when people are at work and when they can’t get these things done,” said Rakowski.
Asked whether older believers would be able to cope with a “digital church”, Rakowski said that the first reactions from locals were positive. His parish is unusual because it caters for a new housing estate where nine in ten residents are young people, he added.
Rafał Witkowski, who created the IT system used by the parish, said the introduction of digital technology was “absolutely inevitable” for the church, both in Poland and around the world.
“The church is discovering this very slowly, probably because it is often managed by people from a different generation that does not perceive this [process of change] so much yet,” he added.
Many churches in Poland turned to technology during the coronavirus pandemic, making religious services available online when strict government restrictions put limits on how many believers could attend services in person.
Some priests in Poland also offered drive-through confessions during the pandemic, although religious officials warned the faithful that confession online or by telephone is not valid.
Church attendance has been falling in Poland, with 42% of people now saying they practise their faith at least once a week, down from almost 70% three decades ago. Earlier this year, the Primate of Poland, Archbishop Wojciech Polak, admitted that there had been a particularly “devastating” decline among young Poles.
Main image credit: parafialacina.pl (screenshot)
Peter Kononczuk is senior editor at Notes from Poland. He was previously a journalist for Agence France-Presse (AFP) in London and Warsaw.
