Two years ago in this magazine, my cousin, Kaja Kowynia-Pietraszek, wrote about the double-edged sword that is growing up in a country – in her case Poland – where Catholicism is cultural. She wrote about how, because everyone around you is Catholic, you become lazy, not giving your religion much thought at all. She also wrote about how lucky she was to grow up in a city, Krakow, where there are over 100 Catholic churches to choose from just in the city centre itself.
Growing up, I was fascinated by the way my Polish family operated around religion. Every Sunday my aunts and uncles, cousins and grandparents would go to Mass, but no one ever went to the same Mass or indeed the same church (for me it was normal that I went with my parents or not at all). As soon as the children were old enough to go out on their own, off they would go to explore and decide at which church they felt most at home. They were trusted to go, with my aunts words, “God exists and you have to pray to him”, ringing in their ears. That was that. God exists. No further questions.
