I have been teaching Polish immigrant Children in Belgium. I would not advertise Polish Catholicism as a model to follow. They are were the European Church was before the sixties, with Catholicism a set of rules and traditions and less of a living faith.
Many of them could rattle off more litanies, prayers and quotes than I as their teacher could, but they were wearing midriff baring tops in december unaware that they even had the option of dressing modestly or chose a lifestyle that did not involve hanging out in the new Polish disco's in Antwerp with guys that would turn into drunken husbands. (Yes, it's a charicature, but it comes pretty close to the truth)
Much of the faith barely touched their life unless in the traditions. And these were wonderful girls in and open to faith in themselves, but many had grown cynical about the Church as an institution (while clinging to certain traditions at the same time) because they saw priests ride around in brandnew cars, preaching hell and condamnation from the pullpit without being an example of a Catholic lifestye themselves.
Seriously... my way of looking at the Church in Poland has undergone a big change since I taught these children. I know a daughter of Catholic immigrants to the US who is changing faiths to a Christian denomination because when she asked her parents and grand parents about reading the bible they said: "what for? The priest reads it to us every week." which is clearly NOT the official Church teaching as to how consider Scripture.
I clearly do not want to say that this goes for all Polish Catholic people, or that there is no good in the Polish Catholic Church, but like in most of the European countries (like Belgium) that have a long Catholic tradition, many problems have seeped in over the centuries, from outright abuse, to obscuring of true teachings. In much of the rest of Europe, the great emptying of the Church in the sixties was a consequence of these. After that there was an almost desperate: "let's adapt, everything goes" reaction to keep people at least somewhat connected to the Church which only facilitated the emptying, since if Faith is not a big deal, it really isn't worth the demands on time and conscience that it gives. Only now, and very, very slowly, are there sparks again and you can see something beautiful growing again, though we will still deal with the aftermath of what happened for several decades.