The priesthood is a subject of research of the humanities including the sociology of religion. The priesthood is also an interestmatter of average people, especially for those who believe in God. In this article I reveal the conception, the attitudes of Polish youth towards the priesthood and priests. The examined group involves students of the secondary school in the city of Kalisz (456) and well as University communication school in the city of Poznań (426). My research has been performed twice in 2007 and 2010, in order to discover the approaches of secondary school students to the institution of priesthood and mere priests in Poland. In the time between those two researches, in Poland there had been some major changes that affected also politics and economy and thus the position of the Catholic Church in state and level of acceptance in the Polish nation. The question is whether those changes affected the opinions of youth about the priesthood and parish priests. This question shall be answered in my article. Generally, examined groups of secondary school in Kalisz and university students in Poznan have positive attitudes towards the priesthood and treat it like a guide or help for their religious part of life. In their critical opinion, the priesthood is a religious vocation and the occupation demanding much sacrifice, courage, humanity and the faith in the God. Students state, that those attributes candidates for priests should have. Young Poles know that some of priests do not match those requirements and reached priesthood by unfair way without a religious vocation. The examined secondary and university students (in 78% of cases) do not agree with the institution of obligatory celibacy. They are convinced that priests should have their own wives and families, as they should serve in the Church. According to their critical opinion, the celibacy and marriage should be totally voluntary, in the contrary to contemporary situation. They say that obligation in such matters can affect the true vocation of priests. As examined youth state, not every priest is prepared to live in celibacy even though he has religious vocation. So the successful priesthood is strictly connected with the vocation coming from the God and not with celibacy and solitude. However, the priest should be a very faithful, religious and human loving person.
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