In Poland, the dispute between the Catholic Church and the centre-left government over the subject of religion in state schools is escalating. Leszek Gesiak, spokesman for the Bishops' Conference, told the TV channel Polsat News on Monday: "We will take further legal action depending on how the situation develops."
His own lawyers are currently analysing the case, he added.
Despite considerable objections from the Church, Education Minister Barbara Nowacka had ordered on Friday that the amount of religious education lessons be halved to one hour per week from the coming school year.
On Sunday, the Presidium of the Bishops' Conference described the minister's decree as an "unlawful act" because the required agreement with the Catholic Church and other affected religious communities had not been reached.
"We expect the Ministry of National Education to return to constitutional standards and refrain from confrontational measures against believers who are fully-fledged citizens of the Republic of Poland," said Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda, President of the Bishops' Conference, and his deputy, Archbishop Jozef Kupny, on Sunday.
Bishops: encroachment on the rights of pupils and religion teachers
The reduction of religious education to one lesson per week and the new obligation to offer religion only in the first or last lesson of the day restricts the constitutionally guaranteed right of parents to educate their children in accordance with their own faith.
The bishops also criticise an encroachment on the rights of pupils and religion teachers. Some of the latter now fear losing their jobs.
The Catholic Church had already appealed to Poland's Supreme Court against another decree by Education Minister Nowacka in 2024 and was ruled in favour by the constitutional judges. This concerned the joint religious education of different year groups if fewer than seven pupils choose the subject in a class.
The government did not recognise the ruling of the Constitutional Court.
Nowacka justified her decision to cap religious education with "common sense".
Young people should not be taught more hours of religious education than biology, chemistry, physics and social studies put together, she said.
The subject of religion has only been back in Polish schools since 1990.
It is voluntary.
Parents can therefore withdraw their children from religious education.
In 1961, the then communist rulers in Warsaw had banned all religious education in all educational institutions.