Changes in Public Policy as A Result of the Moral Panic Around the Paedophilia Cases Among the Polish Clergy

The article presents the results of the analysis of the Polish media discourse on the problem of paedophilia cases and paedophilic acts among the clergy in the years 2013-2019. A particular emphasis in the analysis was placed on the events and components of the process known in social sciences as the moral panic. The study used the method of critical analysis of media discourse (the analysis covered portals known as right-wing, left-wing and liberal) along with the analysis of the existing data. The results of the study show that in Polish society there is a discursive overcoming of the topic of paedophilia and openness to the debate around ways to solve the problem, also on the side of church institutions. Over the past six years, there has been a significant transformation of public discourse on the subject of paedophilia cases of the clergy and postulated ways of solving the problem. The study observed the impact of the symbolic elites - politicians, journalists, members of organizations and people of culture on progressive changes at the level of perception of the phenomenon. During the analysis there was also noticed the process of creating a new enemy in the form of a sexual minority environment and the sexualization of children, which, in the opinion of the examined environments, is expected to increase the scale of paedophilia