🚀 go-pugleaf

The outline of problems regarding freedom of conscience and belief, tolerance
and separation of State and Church in Poland.

 (an article from Polish Humanist Association  site
http://free.ngo.pl/humanizm/index.htm)
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We represent this part of Polish society which particularly favours the
integration of Poland with the European Union, since - in our perception - it
will not only serve the economic interests of our country but will also help
Poland to come up to the well developed democracies in respect of the widely
understood political culture: respect for individual freedoms, tolerance of
pluralistic views and ways of life and the separation of State and Church. To
our knowledge, the countries which seek membership in the European Union are
required to meet certain conditions defining the minimal standards of modern
democracy. Such requirements accelerate the process of advancement of
civilisation in the candidate countries. In our opinion, however, the above
said conditions are not sufficiently clearly presented. It also seems that
the image of contemporary Poland as perceived in the West is at odds with
reality. What seems to go unnoticed is the fact, that at the beginning of the
Nineties, Poland entered the road to a religious state and despite the four
years of the social democratic rule, when this process had been slowed down,
it is close to this model of state. 

This situation cannot be explained by the traditional Polish religiosity: the
process we are referring to has been progressing against the will of the
significant portion of our society. It is, however, supported by the majority
of the new (the so called post-solidarity) political elite which eagerly
satisfies political ambitions of the Catholic Church in return for its full
political backing. Such political agitation which abuses the political
naivety of uneducated people commonly takes place during religious gatherings
and in the increasingly growing number of the media controlled by the Church.
Last year it led to the electoral victory of the ultra conservative coalition
called the Electoral Action "Solidarity". Soon after their coming to power
the newly elected authorities rewarded the Church with several church
inspired laws and assured the clergy that the future governmental policies
would realise clerical political aspirations that go beyond the territory of
Poland. One should remember that according to the present Pope, Poland should
become a source of inspiration for the so called re-evangelization of Europe,
which would in reality lead to the Catholic Church regaining the status of
the only repository of the truth - as regards worldview and social morality -
and in consequence regaining its political influence and economic privileges.
Regardless of whether this vision with respect to Europe is realistic or not,
Poland is being ardently adjusted to the requirements of this role - for it
corresponds with the interests of the Polish catholic clergy and the large
part of a political class. 

One of the important consequences of these aspirations is the large body of
legislation turning some aspects of the catholic ideology into national laws
and reinforcing the position of the Church in social life. One of the first
pieces of such legislation legalised (introduced earlier against the law) the
presence of religious instruction in public schools and the fact that
catechism teachers are paid by the state which at the same time has no say
whatsoever as regards the contents of such instruction. Another example of
such legislative acts was a law enforcing the respect for "Christian values"
on radio and television resulting in practical ban on anything that is not
accepted by the Church. Probably the most extreme indication of the
submissiveness of the parliament to the Church was the adoption of the very
restrictive anti-abortion law. At the demand of the Church the provision on
the separation of State and Church was replaced with an enigmatic wording
providing for their "mutual autonomy". Another constitutional provision
obliged the government and the parliament to regulate the relations with the
Church in the international law concluded with the Vatican, the so called
concordat. Recently the concordat has been ratified in the version which has
been the source of a heated controversy, since it was signed by the then
post-solidarity government in 1993. This agreement sanctions all privileges
hitherto obtained by the Church; in some cases it makes them even greater or
provides for the future additional privileges. Numerous provisions of the
concordat violate constitutional guarantees of freedom and equality before
the law. Moreover, since the agreement devolves certain powers to the Church
it should, according to the Constitution, be adopted by a two-thirds majority
of the vote - it was, however, ratified by a simple majority of the votes in
both chambers of the Parliament. 

The Constitutional Tribunal - an institution which has been established in
order to decide about the conformity of laws with the Constitution - also
proves to be dependant on the Church. We have been recently provided with a
striking evidence of such dependence: the Tribunal - clearly without any
legal grounds whatsoever - decided that the relatively liberal law on
abortion had not been in conformity with the Constitution and with the
principles of the state governed by the rule of law. This verdict was used by
the conservative majority in the parliament to reintroduce the ban on
abortion. 

The above given examples of laws adopted on the dictation of the clergy show
that the Church is treated by Polish authorities as a source of law and at
the same time as an institution whose interests are above law. There are
numerous examples of the clergy violating the laws with impunity: insults
hurled on disobedient MPs, racist and anti-Semitic speeches, infringements of
financial regulations, even though public authorities diligently help to keep
them from the knowledge of general public. Institutions dealing with
administration of justice abstain from prosecuting in such cases and those
few prosecutors which try to instigate legal proceedings against clergymen
are being punished by their superiors. 

State authorities provide also increasingly generous assistance to the
ideological expansion of the Catholic Church. They support a large number of
religious publishing houses, grant almost unlimited presence of the clergy in
the electronic public media, sponsor the Pope's travels, activities of the
Papal Theological Academy and theological seminaries. Openly declaring the
catholic identity of Poland and authenticating these declarations by symbolic
acts (as hanging the cross in the parliamentary plenary sittings' room or
organising a pilgrimage of MPs to religious centre of Poland in Częstochowa),
they contribute to the growth of the religious fanaticism in Poland. This
phenomenon can be best illustrated by the popularity of the radio station
called "Radio Maryja". This radio station advocates religious fundamentalism,
intolerance and xenophobic nationalism. Members of the state authorities
during public appearances promote the cult of the Pope and demonstrate
obsequiousness to him. Celebrations of all historical anniversaries and other
state ceremonies include spectacular religious rituals and the Church
hierarchs are being consulted in all important social and political matters.
Recently, in order to satisfy the Church the minister of education decided to
withdraw sexual education from schools. For the same reasons the Parliament
rejected the proposal to remove the marks for religion from school
certificates (the presence of such marks violates the constitutional
guarantee and contributes to the discrimination of non-believers thus
creating psychological pressure to participate in religious instruction). For
similar reasons the minister of defence fails to respond to the complaints of
soldiers who are forced to practise religion. 

A separate, important issue is the question of legal and illegal financial
privileges of the Church and clergymen. Some of those privileges originate
still from the so called communist Poland whose authorities tried to buy the
support of the Church. Great majority of them, however, have been introduced
after the political transformation in Poland. 

Polish clergy being a relatively wealthy social group, is encumbered with
minimal income taxes, while their real earnings are not known. The Church has
been granted numerous tax allowances, reductions and exemptions from duties
for imported goods without proper control of the way such goods are used (it
is generally known that many of these goods, particularly cars, are being
sold in the free market with huge profits). The most extreme and socially
noxious privilege is the Church's right to participate in the so called
regulatory proceedings where its claims for the property rights restitution
are being decided. Such claims are often made for the real property lost long
time (sometimes centuries) ago and of high public utility (as hospitals,
schools, student houses etc.). Such property is often returned to the Church
by arbitrary decisions, made either by individual state officials or by the
so called "property committee", composed in the first half of the state
officials and in second half of the representatives of the Episcopate. The
committee's decisions are final - they are not subject to appeal to any
higher instance, nor are they subject to any form of social control. This way
of proceeding is in contradiction to the basic principles of the democratic
state and the rule of law. In no other post-communist country the Church is
granted property in such a way and on such a grand scale. To our knowledge,
for example, in the Czech Republic and in Hungary the decisions with respect
to each individual claim is made by the parliament. 

The recently ratified concordat has sanctioned and broadened this -
incompatible with the Constitution - practise giving the Church opportunity
to co-decide about its own financial relations with the state; all changes
with respect to such relations are to be decided by the joint commission
appointed by the parties to this agreement. 

It is not true (as some commentators from the European Union seem to believe)
that Polish authorities eagerly meet the demands of the Church because Polish
reforms and the process of integration with Europe can succeed only on
condition that they are supported by the Church, or otherwise they wouldn't
gain social support. Polish society approves of the reforms aimed at the
integration with Europe and does not approve, what is conformed by the
findings of sociological studies, of the Church's interference with politics
(majority of the surveys' subjects assessed its political ambitions as
excessive) and of its exaggerated financial aspirations. The Church's support
is required and bought at the cost of democracy and social interests in
Poland exclusively to the advantage of those politicians and political groups
who are afraid of loosing social support as a result of their incompetence
proved while in authority.