Poland's church deplores government curbs on religious teaching, with lessons cut in half

(OSV News) -- Poland's Catholic primate has accused Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government of pandering to anti-church feeling, after it unveiled new plans to downgrade religious teaching in the traditionally Catholic country.

"Our education law stipulates a church-state agreement is needed for such changes -- but the minister responsible thinks it's enough to hold a consultation and then just take her own decision," said Archbishop Wojciech Polak of Gniezno.

"Our offers of dialogue and compromise haven't been listened to, and this is why we feel we're being dictated to -- by politicians seeking to boost their popularity with left-wing sections of society who wish to exclude the church from public life," he told OSV News.

The Gniezno-based archbishop was reacting to an Education Ministry directive halving the time allotted to religious lessons from the new school year starting in September.

In an OSV News interview, Poland's primate said the directive was the latest reflecting of a "lack of goodwill" toward the church, and would affront the rights of parents and interests of students.

"To claim religion takes time from other subjects is offensive -- proper upbringing isn't just confined to technical aspects of life, but has to include values," Archbishop Polak said.

"No one is demanding everyone participate in these classes, and we know they require continual attention. But other European countries include religious teaching in their school programs -- you can't just relegate it in this unjust and harmful way."

Religious classes were reintroduced to state schools after the 1989 collapse of communist rule, and are currently taught by 30,000 full-time catechists.

However, planned restrictions were announced in early 2024 by Tusk's new coalition government, alongside a liberalization of abortion and same-sex partnerships and other reforms. In August, a previous government directive restricting classes was suspended by Poland's Constitutional Court after an appeal by the Catholic Church and other religious denominations.

However, in her new directive, published Jan. 17, Education Minister Barbara Nowacka ordered classes on religion and ethics, already voluntary, to be halved to one hour weekly and placed outside compulsory school time, with exceptions only for primary schools where all pupils were signed up by their parents.

Speaking to the media, Nowacka said the curbs were an "electoral commitment," and would help schoolchildren "for future life, including professional life, in the best possible way."

However, this was bitterly rejected by the Polish bishops' conference, which said the proposed changes would restrict the constitutional rights of pupils to "systemic support" in their spiritual development, and of parents "to raise their children in accordance with their own beliefs," while also jeopardizing "guaranteed employment rights" for religious teachers.

"Since no statutory agreement was reached with the Catholic Church and other interested religious associations, this is an unlawful act," the bishops' presidium said in a Jan. 19 statement.

"We now expect the Education Ministry to return to rule of law standards -- and refrain from further confrontational actions against believers who are full citizens of the Republic of Poland."

Meanwhile, Poland's Association of Lay Catechists dismissed Nowacka's claims as "a joke," and vowed to appeal her directive "in the international forum," citing religious discrimination.

The association said the government had agreed to introduce voluntary "health education" classes instead as a full part of the timetable, and had not increased the scope for other subjects, such as history and geography, by curbing religious lessons.

It added that catechism teachers were often barred from leading other classes "due to the fact they teach religion," and said at least 10,000 would lose their jobs, despite promises of retraining and redeployment from Nowacka's ministry.

"Hatred and peer violence towards students attending religious education classes are already a real problem, especially in large agglomerations," the Warsaw-based association said.

"Teachers of religion are not only discriminated against in employment, but also exposed to persecution by other teachers because of what they teach. The atmosphere of mockery towards Catholics and Christians across the country is fueled by the media and politicians focused on ruthless political capital."

In his OSV News interview, Archbishop Polak said the Catholic Church would consult the seven member-denominations of the Polish Ecumenical Council, who include Baptists, Lutherans, Methodist and Orthodox, about a fresh Constitutional Court appeal against the latest government "diktat."

"Although we also want the program to include important cultural phenomena, rather than just catechesis and faith formation, religious teaching is about fundamental values," Poland's primate told OSV News.

"I think the church has fallen victim to contrasting positions inside the coalition government -- at a time when it lacks the instruments of protest available to political parties."

Attendance at religious classes -- taught in public schools across the country -- currently averages 78% nationwide, according to a December report by the church's Statistics Institute.

"Religious freedom is guaranteed in Poland not only in private life and sacred spaces, but also in the public sphere of the education system, health care and social assistance," the Catholic Information Agency, KAI, said in a December report.

"The present government must ponder whether it intends to respect rights guaranteed in the constitution, concordat and laws, or aims instead at confrontation and fuelling left-wing populism."

Archbishop Polak said attitudes to religious education differed across Poland, and had brought a "slow drift away from religious lessons" in cities. "However, the situation is quite different in rural communities, where 100 percent of children often attend them," the Primate told OSV News.

"The minister has pledged religion won't be removed from schools entirely. But these planned restrictions, allowing lessons only outside school hours, are already causing great difficulties and unease."

Poland's newest top Catholic prelate, Archbishop Adrian Galbas in Warsaw, told media representatives Jan. 20 he believed some groups in Poland sought "to negate not only the church's social role, but any role for it at all," adding that it currently faced attacks which were "not only hostile, but downright vulgar."