Parafia katolicka jako środowisko społeczno-kulturowe

The Roman Catholic parish as a socio-cultural milieu. The paper deals with a number of essential issues, such as: a) parish membership; b) signs of social bonds in the parish; c) organizational structures of a parish and their activities. We look at the parish from the perspective of the real social integration that takes place on the level of everyday parish life, where social bonds are formed. Current discussions about decline or revival of catholic parish are replaced by those writings, which emphasize change and metamorphosis. The basic metamorphoses to which traditional parish communities are subjected, take place on various levels and in different aspects. In our discussion about the social condition of the Roman Catholic parish in Poland, we mainly focus on its religious and church activities, and not so much on issues related to solving diverse social problems (the public work of a parish).