Postawy wobec Kościoła jako instytucji publicznej w Polsce w latach 1989-1999

The present considerations are only concerned with the Church's social significance and position in the society and do not touch upon its theological nature. The problem of the Church from the sociological perspective is extremely important, since in Poland − as empirical analyses show − religious involvement is closely connected to one's personal attitude towards the Church as an institution. Also the debate about the role and place of religion in public life is obscured by one's attitude towards the Church as an institution. In the article the author presented selected results of public opinion polls conducted in the recent few years by the CBOS (Centre for Social Opinion Studies), OBOP (Centre for Public Opinion Studies), Instytut Sondaży Społecznych (Institute for Public Polls) “Opinia” and Polski Generalny Sondaż Społeczny (Polish General Social Poll). The declared trust in the Church has various levels depending on the institution that conducted the poll. The differences in the obtained results range from 10 to 20%, and sometimes even more. Taking into consideration the differences in the posed questions it can be said that between 55 and 75% of the studied Poles are willing to give positive opinions about the Church in general categories. However, it is a trust of a special kind, on the level of generally accepted values. If we refer to other indexes, like conviction about the Church's dominance in the society, satisfaction with the Church's pronouncements on various social issues, Poles opinions about the Concordat, applying the principles of the Catholic social teaching by the state authorities, the Church's influence on Polish legislature etc., this trust will appear in a little different light.