Church representatives argued that the policy contradicted regulations that require the religious authorities to agree to religious education arrangements.
“The Church has reiterated its own compromise reform proposal, consisting of a gradual reduction over several years in religious education at secondary schools, while respecting the employment rights of catechists,” said a statement signed by Bishop Marek Marczak, an auxiliary in the Archdiocese of Łódź who is secretary-general to the Polish bishops’ conference. “Here too there has been no agreement.”
This followed the collapse of talks on the government’s proposals, which would see religious classes restricted to the start and end of the school day and removed from school reports.
The statement said Poland’s Constitutional Court had confirmed the need for the consent of the Catholic Church and other denominations in such matters, in a ruling at the end of November. It said the top-level joint commission of Church and state representatives should continue the discussions.
A report from the Church’s Catholic Information Agency (KAI) said the “principle of consensual regulation” in Church-state relations was enshrined in Poland’s 1997 constitution and 1993 Concordat with the Vatican, adding that the Church would consider appealing against the education ministry’s “legal violations” to the European Court of Human Rights.
“Religious freedom is guaranteed in Poland not only in private life and sacred spaces, but also in the public sphere of the education system, healthcare, social assistance and the presence of religious symbols – it includes the right of parents to provide their children with moral and religious education in line with their beliefs,” it said.
“The present government must ponder whether, in its relations with churches and other religious associations, it intends to respect rights guaranteed in the Constitution, Concordat and other laws, or aims instead at confrontation and fuelling left-wing populism.”
Tusk’s newly installed coalition government announced plans to restrict religious classes – currently taught across the country by 30,000 full-time catechists – in early 2024, and in July an education ministry decree confirmed their implementation in the new school year.
Although the “contested regulation” was suspended in August by the Constitutional Court, Poland’s Education Minister, Barbara Nowacka said the judgment had “no legal effect”, insisting the decree would remain “generally applicable” to schools in the current year.
Besides curbing religious teaching, the government has pledged to legalise same-sex partnerships. However, it suffered a defeat in July when conservative coalition members joined opposition parties to vote down abortion liberalisation.
The latest dispute coincided with a report last week from the Church’s Statistics Institute, which said average Sunday Mass attendance had dropped to 29 per cent across Poland’s 15 archdioceses and 42 dioceses, alongside a sharp fall in baptisms and church marriages, and a smaller decrease in first communions and confirmations.
Over 78 per cent of school children still voluntarily attended religious classes, the report noted, although this varied from 96 per cent in the southern eastern Tarnow diocese to 58 per cent in Warsaw.
In a social media post on Monday, the bishops’
conference said it was “open to concessions and specific compromise
solutions” for religious teaching, but accused Nowacka’s education
ministry of “lacking the will to listen to any other opinions”.