For most of the day, Gabriela’s classroom in Wroclaw, a city in south-western Poland, is a hive of activity(一片繁忙景象). But on Thursdays, as religion class starts, most of the kids trickle away(陆续散去). Religion lessons are optional and limited to one hour a week, but even that is sometimes too much for 12-year-old Gabriela, who says she envies the kids who get to opt out(选择退出). Of the 18 pupils in her class, only three take religion.
在波兰西南部城市弗罗茨瓦夫，加布里埃拉的教室一天中大部分时间都热闹非凡。但每到周四，宗教课一开始，大多数孩子便陆续离开。宗教课是选修课，每周仅一小时，但即便是这一小时，对12岁的加布里埃拉来说有时也难以忍受，她说自己羡慕那些可以不上宗教课的孩子。她班上18名学生中，只有三人选修宗教。
Poland is one of Europe’s most religious countries, with 92% of adults identifying as Catholic. But religiosity(宗教虔诚度) is declining. The share of adults who do not practise at all(完全不参加宗教活动) has doubled in under a decade, to 22%. Sunday Mass(弥撒) attendance has fallen from 45% in 2005 to below 30%. Church weddings, baptisms and priest numbers have dropped, and the church has been forced to look abroad for recruits(向国外招募人员). At a seminary(神学院) in Kielce, in southern Poland, nearly a third of the trainee priests are from Africa.
波兰是欧洲最虔诚的国家之一，92%的成年人自认是天主教徒。但宗教虔诚度正在下降。完全不参加宗教活动的成年人比例在不到十年间翻了一番，达到22%。周日弥撒的出席率已从2005年的45%降至30%以下。教堂婚礼、洗礼和神父人数都在减少，教会不得不向国外招募人员。在波兰南部凯尔采的一所神学院里，近三分之一的受训神父来自非洲。
The exodus(大批离去) is especially acute(严重的，急剧的) among the young. From the 1990s, when Poland scrap(废除，取消)ped communism, until the early 2010s the share of secondary-schoolers in their final year who took religion courses hover(徘徊，维持在)ed around 90%. By last year it had dip(下降，下跌)ped to 35% (see chart). The share who are non-believers is 24%, four times the figure for adults. Youngsters everywhere tend to be less religious than their parents, but in Poland the generation gap(代沟) is unusually wide. “Secularisation(世俗化：宗教在社会中影响力下降的过程) here is happening faster than anywhere else,” says Andrzej Kobylinski, an academic and priest.
这场“出走”在年轻人中尤为严重。从20世纪90年代波兰废除共产主义制度，到2010年代初，高中毕业班学生选修宗教课程的比例一直徘徊在90%左右。到去年，这一比例已降至35%（见图表）。非信徒的比例为24%，是成年人比例的四倍。世界各地的年轻人往往不如父辈虔诚，但波兰的代际差距异常之大。学者兼神父安杰伊·科贝林斯基说：“这里的世俗化速度比任何地方都快。”