Kościół katolicki w Polsce jako siła moralna

Speaking about the Catholic Church as a moral power the author has in mind a socio- -descriptive approach, that is the overall norms and obligatory precepts related to good and evil. The latter are recognized in a social group or in the global society, being in a relation to the values and moral norms proclaimed by the Church. Thus understood morality presents certain socio-historical or socio-moral situation (ethos), which, as each human reality, contains both positive and negative elements pertaining to the values and norms bearing an ideal character. The more there is accordance between values and moral norms proclaimed by the church along with actual attitudes and behaviors of the members of the society, the greater is the moral authority of the Church, the greater is her moral strength in a society. The empirical part of the paper discusses some chosen findings of sociological research and public opinion surveys from the 1990s, concerning marital and familial morality. These findings testify to a relatively advanced process of secularization in this sphere of human life, even among people who regular go to church. The actual marital and familial morality takes its shape partly independently from religion and its requirements, with an increasing social approval. We enter the new stage of social development with a weakened Christian marital and familial ethos, the stage being called pluralistic society. The vast part of the Polish society binds its spiritual expectations with the Church which is still treated, in general terms, as a bearer of the system of values and moral norms.