The changes made by the Ministry of Education are unlawful and unjust, emphasised Bishop Wojciech Osial (Łowicz), Chairman of the Education Commission of the Bishops' Conference, at a press conference of the Diocesan Bishops' Council, according to the news portal "Deon.pl" (Tuesday).
He explained that religious education has "great potential" and can make an important contribution to education.
Osial clearly criticised the new subject of "health education". Although it contains many positive aspects, the Church also sees content that "contradicts its teachings, particularly in questions of morality and sexuality".
He therefore appealed to parents to think carefully about whether to send their children to these lessons.
The background to this is a dispute between the bishops and the centre-left government over the planned halving of religious education lessons.
At the beginning of July, the Constitutional Court declared the government's reduction of religious education from two to one lesson per week to be unconstitutional.
However, Education Minister Barbara Nowacka rejected the ruling, as Parliament had denied the Constitutional Court legitimacy in March 2024.
Independent commission against abuse
Regarding the planned commission of independent experts to investigate the sexual abuse of minors by clergy, Bishop Slawomir Oder explained that he had presented the diocesan bishops with drafts of documents that would form the basis for the commission after just under two months.
Initially, there were many uncertainties and misinformation, including the claim that the commission had already failed.
The working group he chaired was not concerned with the foundation itself, but with developing a legally sound procedure in accordance with church and civil law.
The first step was an agreement between the Bishops' Conference and the Conferences of Superiors of Men's and Women's Religious Orders, based on an extended draft statute.
As decisions made by the Bishops' Conference cannot be imposed on the bishops, joining the commission remains voluntary.
"The formal establishment of the commission will therefore be linked to the signing of bilateral agreements," explained Oder.
The drafts have now been sent to the Legal Commission; if the assessment is favourable, the commission could be officially established in the coming months.
Regarding the planned reform of church media companies, a spokesperson for the Bishops' Conference also explained that the difficult financial situation was one of the main reasons for the reorganisation.
"We know that the operation of media is expensive - this also applies to the media founded by the Polish Bishops' Conference," said the spokesperson.
However, no concrete decisions have yet been made, apart from the statement that a reorganisation is necessary.
The Bishops' Conference had previously been criticised for wanting to incorporate the news agency "Katolicka Agencja Informacyjna" (KAI) into its own new "media group" and deprive it of the possibility of independent journalistic work.
However, this was rejected by the bishops.