Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Gender Studies and Sexuality
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Catholicism, Sexuality and Family Planning among Polish Migrants in Ile-de-France. Liberalization or Retraditionalization?
Agnieszka Kosiorowska
ABSTRACT:
In Poland, topics related to sexuality and family planning have been in the centre of public debates related to the state and the Church for years. Although after 1989 the Catholic Church gained significant influence on state policies concerning reproductive rights (Mishtal 2015), the attitudes of the faithful towards the Catholic norm, which excludes premarital sex and methods of family planning other than natural, remained varied (Kościańska, 2017). Recent research points to ongoing, dynamic changes within religiosity in this rapidly secularizing country (Kościańska et al., 2021). This paper, situated in the nexus of sexuality, migration and religion, explores the influence of migration on Polish Catholics’ attitudes towards the Church’s teachings. I draw on ethnographic fieldwork of a total duration of 5 months, which I conducted in the Ile-de-France region of France in 2022 and 2023, in order to trace patterns of liberalization and retraditionalization of migrants’ views and practices related to religion, sexuality and reproduction.
keywords: Contraception, Ethnography, Religion, Reproductive Rights, Secularization