ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the phenomenon of 'New Monastic Communities’ (NMCs) within the Catholic community in Poland. Studying NMCs in Poland is complicated, the main problem being the lack of comprehensive data; what we can state, however, is that since 1989, the number of Public Associations of the Christian Faithful (Code of Canon Law, 301–20), sometimes recognised as NMCs, has increased, although they are at an initial phase of development. The Polish historical, social, cultural and political framework makes the study of NMCs particularly fruitful when discussing whether and how NMCs may answer the challenges of future Christian Monasticism (as its proponents claim), and whether they are counteracting the decline of Christian Monasticism. The case study here, of a mixed NMC, the Monastic Fraternity of Jerusalem in Warsaw allows me to answer that question.
