Public lecture

Press release – 16 May 2012

 

Professor Sabrina P. Ramet, professor of political science at the Norwegian University of Science & Technology, in Trondheim (Norway) and senior researcher with the Centre for the Study of Civil War, PRIO, Oslo is giving a public lecture about

The Catholic Church in post-communist Poland: Polarization, privatization, and decline in influence

on 21 May 2012, from 16:00-18:00 at the EuroCollege, Lossi 36 – 103.

Lecture abstract: There has been some erosion of commitment to Catholic norms among Poles (although not of the tendency to identify with the Church as such), especially among those of the younger generation, alongside a decline in the prestige and influence of the Church. These may be traced to a combination of factors, including (1) the Church’s blundering efforts to promote its own agenda on Poland (especially in the years 1989—97); (2) the controversy stirred up by revelations about the extent of collaboration with the communist-era secret police on the part of bishops and priests; (3) the controversies surrounding property restitution to religious communities; and (4) the scandal surrounding sex abuse by clergy not only in the USA and Germany but also in Poland itself, as well as in other countries, and the Holy See’s ineffective response to this scandal.

Alar Kilp, UT Lecturer in political science, will provide a comment on this lecture and will guide a question-and-answer exchange with Dr. Ramet.

Professor Ramet is a renowned political science scholar of Central and Southeastern Europe. Her research stretches a wide range of areas including religion in the post-communist space, the history of Yugoslavia, international relations and applied philosophy. She is the author of 12 scholarly books, one novel, and two books of humorous verse, and editor or co-editor of 27 books (26 published and one in production). She earned her Ph.D. at UCLA in 1981.

The lecture is organized by the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu and is part of a series of lectures given by Prof. Ramet on various topics. For more details please visit the UT website.