Summary of the project

“Roma locuta causa finita.” Rome has spoken; the case is closed. This statement is still true today among many believing Catholics in Poland as synonymous with the papacy settling doctrinal, moral, and disciplinary issues. Our project is an attempt to try to reverse this sentence and, instead, ask the question of how Pope Francis’ activities open the way for a discussion on public opinion. We want to find out to what extent the form and contents of the Pope’s teachings are subject to changes under the influence of transformations that communication is presently undergoing. Here, we are naturally assuming that the pope, like every other significant social life actor, is subject to deep mediatization. As a result, media users, including a large number of believing Catholics, are changing their beliefs about papal authority in the Catholic Church.

Our project was funded by the National Science Centre, Poland (no. 2019/35/B/HS2/00016) under the scheme Opus 18.