Note that adjective "catholic" is now more often used than "democratic" when someone is trying to describe what Poland is.
It is now, as it was before and will be in the near future. You say that as if "catholic" had some pejorative meaning. The position of church in Poland for the last 200 years or so was pretty strong, as it was lower levels of church that supported local patriotism during partitions. Hence it understandable that people tend to put equality sign between catholic and beeing a Pole, although it is not as simple. That is not to say that polish church didn't make its share of mistakes and dumb things. I tend to agree with opinions that the more mature polish state becomes, the longer the independence, the less power the church will possess. It is happenning even right now.
Church criticized in Poland? No way! Especially in public
The religion is often used by politicians to gather more votes. However reading papers I haven't noticed such special treatment - there are papers that support it, others that do not. I know that public television may look different but that medium is owned by whatever paty is in power so no surprise here. On the other hand looking at the internet boards you would think that clergy is murdered by thousands. Polish church takes a lot of criticism as elswhere in the world. Sometimes it is justified, sometimes not.
