Journalist Marcin Przeciszewski, who has been editor-in-chief and managing director since the agency was founded in 1993, has resigned from both posts because the Polish bishops have decided to "effectively liquidate the Katolicka Agencja Informacyjna (Catholic Information Agency, KAI) despite formally retaining its name and logo".
Przeciszewski announced this on Friday in Warsaw.
The Bishops' Conference wants to incorporate KAI into its own new "media group" and deprive it of "the possibility of independent journalistic work", he continued. The aim of the decision already taken by the plenary assembly in March is "not an honest portrayal of religious and church reality in accordance with the rules of journalistic craft", but the dissemination of "positive information" under the control of church structures.
The press offices of the Polish Bishops' Conference and the Archdiocese of Warsaw did not initially respond to enquiries from the Catholic News Agency (KNA).
Warsaw's Archbishop Adrian Galbas heads the KAI Programme Council.
The 66-year-old Przeciszewski is one of the most influential Catholic journalists in the country.
On Friday, he moderated a Polish-Ukrainian prayer breakfast organised by KAI in the parliament building in Warsaw with the Archbishop and Primate of Gniezno Wojciech Polak, the Grand Archbishop of Kiev Svyatoslav Shevchuk and politicians from both countries and clergy from various denominations.
Second largest religious agency in Europe
According to information from KNA, Przeciszewski officially announced his resignation in mid-June at the most recent plenary assembly of Polish bishops. He intends to continue in both offices until a successor is appointed, it said. In 2018, he was awarded the papal Order of St Gregory, the highest papal honour for lay people.
The KAI belongs to a foundation of the Bishops' Conference and has so far operated largely autonomously. It reports regularly on ecclesiastical and social developments at home and abroad. According to its own information, it is the second largest religious agency in Europe.
In Poland, it is the leading source of information on church topics for journalists. Its customers include many church and secular media who subscribe to it.
Przeciszewski emphasised: "As I have always tried to work for the good of the Church - and this was the sole aim of the Catholic Information Agency that I run - I have no choice but to step down from my position as Chairman of the Board in view of the announced changes, in accordance with my conscience and my professionalism as a journalist."
According to the founder and head of KAI, the agency's previous concept was beneficial to the Church.
The agency represents the Catholic point of view in important public debates without involving the authority of the Bishops' Conference.
The concept corresponds to church models from abroad. According to Przeciszewski, Cardinals Jozef Glemp and Franciszek Macharski, who have since passed away, were among those involved in its creation.
According to him, the author of the restructuring plan adopted by the bishops is the press spokesman of the Bishops' Conference, the Jesuit Leszek Gesiak.