Thirteenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

The focus is drawn to shedding Catholic religious identity in Poland and how interviewees represent it, where they find reasons and how this decision has affected their lives. Methodologically I am inspired by biographical research which assume that narration enables one to construct a coherent picture of one’s own identity. Theorists admit that people very often possess more than one identity. Moreover, life-storytelling not only gives insights into this complex identity issue but also endows our life with meaning and integrity. My interviewees underlined that they have entirely lost touch with the Roman Catholic Church. However, almost everyone has admitted that a direct catalyst which pushed them to this decision were events which occurred in Poland in the years 2020-2021, i.e., revealing cases of paedophilia among the clergy and the ruling of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal on abortion law. This turn towards outside factors makes me think the participants seek reasons for their breach with religion in society. Thus, I have decided to seek inspirations in critical discourse analysis methodology. The subject matter of my research is 35 audio recorded conversations with apostates in Poland. These are narratives which tell the story of breaching from family roots, coping with a change, taking responsibility, courage, emancipation and a reflective view on life, culture, and national traditions.