Contemporary peripheries, or new socio-cultural environments, are a challenge for the Church to understand and to engage with in dialogue in a spirit of respect for the dignity of every human being. Church structures are such as to enable evangelization rather than to preserve the status quo. In order to make the Church’s teaching more refined, it should also make use of the social sciences whose guiding principles would offer support in its fulfilment of the mission entrusted to it by Christ (see Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, 27, 30, 40).
To fulfil this task, the Archbishop of Wrocław, Joseph Kupny, established the Social Observatory Foundation (Obserwatorium Społeczne).
The Social Observatory is a Christian think tank that aims to analyse social reality, new and emerging cultural trends, as well as political and economic ones. The Foundation serves to make social diagnoses, especially recognizing new challenges and dangers, as well as anticipating the way the Church could react to contemporary changes in the spirit of its encounter with the world. The reflections and activities of the Social Observatory are aimed at reinforcing the axiological foundations of society. An important part of the activity of the Social Observatory is the promotion of the social teaching of the Church and the guiding and education of society in accordance with the principles proposed by Catholic social teaching.
Bearing in mind the history of Wroclaw, the Social Observatory serves the idea of reconciliation, not by eliminating existing differences, but through dialogue between religions, cultures, peoples and social groups.
The scholars, experts, analysts, authors and journalists assembled by the Social Observatory intend to initiate and co-create public debate. By working with other centres, the Observatory wants to build bridges between different actors in the social sphere and contribute to an improvement in the quality of public life.
The Social Observatory harks back to the traditions of Wroclaw’s social sciences, and particularly the figure of Fr. Professor Joseph Majka, who initiated sociological research into religiousness in Poland led by the Church’s centres and who was the undisputed authority in the field of religious sociology and Catholic social science.
Goals of the Social Observatory:
- Promoting the inalienable dignity of the human being
- Promoting Catholic social science
- Supporting the development of democracy, the rule of law, a social market economy and corporate social responsibility
- Supporting marriage and the family, and social and demographic policies
- Supporting reconciliation, understanding and dialogue in social life
- Inspiring, organizing and conducting academic research in the social and philosophical sciences
We would like to invite all those who wish to work with us in our pursuit of the aims of the Observatory to contact us. We are also open to dialogue with all who respect the dignity of every human being.
Fundacja Obserwatorium Społeczne
Plac Katedralny 1
50-329 Wrocław
Tel: 713 074 237
e-mail: fundacja@obserwatoriumspoleczne.pl
www.obserwatoriumspoleczne.pl