When analyzing the moral conduct of Catholics in the parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, attention should not be focused on individual acts, but rather on conduct characterized by consistency. Religiousness is fostered by an attitude that is broadly open to ethical values. In accordance with the principle of bipolarity, an attitude may be negative when one’s disposition toward ethical values is unfavorable. Therefore, our analysis must proceed in two directions: positive and negative moral attitudes. In this study, we will present some positive moral attitudes.
Positive moral attitudes include, among other things, a higher number of births, marital stability, mutual respect, and love within the family. How did these indicators develop in the parish under discussion?
Although the parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Help was rich in its youngest generation, which according to calculations accounted for approximately 27 percent of the entire community, in the years 1970–1983 it could not boast large families. This situation may be illustrated by a compilation prepared on the basis of the parish records:
The above compilation includes only children who were dependent on their parents. The fertility rate in families would have improved significantly if the compilation had also included people who had become independent by starting their own families or had left the family home for other reasons, such as obtaining their own apartment, moving to another locality because of their work, and so on. The number of families with three, four, or five children would then have increased, while the number with one or two children would have decreased.
Another moral indicator affecting family fertility is marital stability. The vast majority of marriages entered into in the parish, as well as those formed by people who had come from other communities, remained faithful to their sacramental vows. This does not mean that they were free of difficulties and certain crises that lead to the breakdown of married life. However, a properly experienced engagement period, supported by premarital instruction that sensitized people to the problems of married life and its fundamental qualities—unity and indissolubility—enabled many future spouses to develop a morally positive and responsible attitude in this direction.
Another moral indicator is known as mutual assistance. In the parish, it took a more organized form through the Helpers of Mary, Mother of the Church. Almost from the beginning of the parish’s existence, two “Night Adoration” groups and 33 groups of mothers belonging to the Living Rosary became particularly involved in providing assistance; they wished to put their religious convictions into practice. They offered Christian assistance to those most in need.
A sick person is someone in need of assistance. The concern shown by the groups involved for sick people consisted not only in providing material aid; it also included spiritual care, involving bringing a priest to administer the sacraments and “bearing” the Word of God heard during parish retreats. Assistance was also provided to many families neglected in religious and moral terms. Particular care was devoted to the children, directing them to pastoral ministry and catechesis.
Numerous sermons delivered during the Wednesday novena encouraged the faithful to help one another in the spirit of the commandment to love one’s neighbor. This love, arising from responsibility for another person, was to serve as a test of love for God. Parishioners who voluntarily entrusted themselves to the Blessed Virgin committed themselves to helping the Church and their neighbors, offering their efforts, sufferings, and voluntary mortifications for them.
The annual parish observances of the Week of Mercy were also a distinctive form of mutual assistance. They were intended to make all the faithful more sensitive to helping people who lacked food and clothing. To meet the particular needs of less affluent families, the parish also organized collections of gifts on the occasion of Easter.
Gifts for those in need were donated anonymously, which makes it difficult to determine how many Christians practiced this form of love of neighbor. It could nevertheless be established that these people brought gifts not just once, but regularly, from which we may infer their positive attitude.
The following table may provide a quantitative indication of the assistance campaign organized in the parish:
The positive moral attitudes presented in the above article allow us to draw a conclusion confirming the existence, among the inhabitants of the parish under discussion in the years 1970–19X3, of a certain group of faithful who responsibly put their professed faith into practice in their lives. It is to be hoped that their number will grow.