EN
The aim of this article is the scientific description of the commonly used concepts such as; community and institution. Common use of these concepts, especially towards the Catholic Church cause the allegation that the Church is moving away from the community concept and focuses more on, as institution character. In the first part of this article, the author made a sociological description of concepts of community and institution, demonstrating that from scientific point of view the institutions is a set of principles, rules and laws that relate to the most important elements of social life of human being. Therefore, institutionalization of the Church, is a natural process which in the issue of religion provides the principles and rules which are supplied by custom , tradition and law. In the second part of the article the author goes on to describe the process of institutionalization of the religious communities in the theory of German sociologist of religion, Joachim Wach. This theory allows you to make analysis of contemporary Church in order to see the need of community as well as the institutional religion in the form of Catholic Church in the life of a modern man.