The Pastoral Conversion in Marian Shrines in Poland

Abstract

In his programmatic apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium (2013), Pope Francis issued an appeal to the entire Church for a “pastoral conversion,” understood as a sustained process of discernment, purification, and reform (EG 28–30). This summons extends as well to Marian shrines, which - as the Holy Father affirmed in the bull Spes non confundit, promulgating the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025 – arecalled to be “holy places of hospitality and privileged spaces for building hope” (no. 24).

In response to this magisterial invitation, the present study seeks to identify key theological and pastoral considerations relevant to the pastoral conversion of Marian shrines in Poland. It first elucidates the concept and ecclesial import of pastoral conversion (1), then examines the theological–pastoral vision of the mission of shrines as articulated in the documents of the Church’s Magisterium, with particular attention to the three constitutive functions through which the Church makes herself present and operative (2). The study concludes by proposing specific lines of action intended to stimulate and inform synodal processes of discernment to be undertaken within each Marian shrine (3).