Sławomir Gawroński

Associate Professor in Chair of Media, Journalism and Public Relations. Mass media and political scientist.

Dean of the Faculty of Administration and Social Sciences at the University of Information Technology and Management in Rzeszow

E-mail: sgawronski@wsiz.rzeszow.pl

Issue: 7:2 (The twenty sixth issue)

The Catholic Church – though in popular opinion it is sometimes treated as a
stronghold of conservatism, traditionalism, suspicion of progress and novelty, it
changed significantly in the second half of the 20th century and continues to change
its attitudes, especially in terms of the use of social communication and attitude to
the media mass. The Church’s growing openness to media relations and the use of a
rich instrumentation of social communication has become one of the reasons for the
growing popularity of market orientation among the clergy and active believers,
which opens opportunities for the development of the concept of a specific sectoral
marketing formula of church marketing. In this article the authors search for the
causes of the progressive phenomenon of the marketization of religion, present
examples of the activities of the Polish Catholic church, inscribed in the church
marketing trend, as well as define the negative consequences resulting from its
dissemination. The applied research method is based on the literature analysis and
case studies analysis.