Generation Z includes people born roughly between 1995 and 2012. They are said to be open-minded, self-confident people who know their rights and... are turning away from religion and the Church. This last aspect is very widely commented on in Poland. For it is accepted that our country is an island of Christianity. But is it really?

People belonging to Generation Z openly and willingly support the LGBTQ+ minority. Research also indicates that more and more Zoomers identify as queer. This is why it is difficult for young people to sit in peace at a sermon in church where the priest blames all the evils of the world on LGBTQ+.

We all remember Archbishop Jędraszewski's words about the "rainbow plague". On the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, the clergyman stated that there are no longer any communists, but instead there is another, even greater evil.

"The Red Plague no longer walks on our soil. Which is not to say that there is not a new one that wants to take control of our souls, hearts and minds. Not Marxist, Bolshevik, but born of the same spirit, neo-Marxist. Not red, but rainbow," said Archbishop Jędraszewski.

In 2019 on TVP Info news channel Rev. Henryk Zielinski, editor-in-chief of "Idziemy" magazine said that he agrees with Jędraszewski. He also underscored that the statement about the "rainbow plague" is identical to the position of the Episcopate and in line with the teaching of the Church. Additionally, Zielinski stated that "LGBT ideology often resorts to physical violence and is a totalitarian ideology".

As a representative of Generation Z, I can say that nothing annoys us more than the Church's meddling in politics. Since Zjednoczona Prawica (the United Right, right-wind political alliance in Poland) took power in 2015, this has unfortunately become a kind of normality.

In 2020, Minister Jadwiga Emilewicz was allowed to make a campaign speech from the church’s pulpit at Jasna Góra. I myself have an agnostic approach to life, but I know exactly that this is a sacred place for many Poles and no politician should promote a party's agenda from there.

We must also not forget how Parliament Speaker Elżbieta Witek asked God for wisdom on Jasna Góra. It can be said that this was a very sad reflection of the state of the Polish state.

I probably do not need to mention how Fr Tadeusz Rydzyk regularly invites representatives of the United Right to masses. At these, he officially thanks officials for all the (million-dollar) bailouts, comments on their policies and even advises on how the country should be governed.

Moreover, Przemyslaw Czarnek, current Minister of Education, recently changed the rules on how a university can open a medical faculty so that Fr Rydzyk could educate future medics at his college mainly associated with religious studies and the Church.

One of the major issues that makes Gen Zers turn away from the Church is paedophilia. For several years journalists and activists have been exposing cases of priests who have sexually abused minors. What causes the most excitement and controversy? The regular transfer of priests accused and often legally convicted for molesting to other parishes and sometimes even countries.

Young people also do not want to go to church because the Church in Poland is treated by the state authorities as an infallible and untouchable institution. When we read the news that one headmistress has reported that a priest in the school she governs had inappropriately touched female pupils, the parents stood by the priest and literally wanted take her away in a wheelbarrow... how are we not to be upset?

How can we go to a mass and listen to the sermons of the clergy when one of them, Fr Tadeusz Rydzyk, claims that Fr Edward Janiak (known for covering up church paedophilia) is a modern martyr?

We have come to live in unpleasant times. The Church used to be a synonym of goodness, love and empathy for Poles. Currently, it is becoming a symbol of bribery, lies and the evil that accumulates there. Why is Generation Z moving away from the Catholic institution? Largely because, having heard the statements of its representatives, they are beginning to doubt whether God really exists if he allows wickedness to be promoted.