Polish Left sets out plan to end “toxic relationship” between church and state

The Left (Lewica), Poland’s second-largest opposition group, has presented a programme it says will ensure that Poland becomes a truly secular state, in particular by removing privileges currently enjoyed by the Catholic church.

Among its proposals are ending state-funded Catholic catechism classes in public schools, abolishing the criminal offence of “offending religious feelings”, banning the conducting of exorcisms on minors, and renegotiating the concordat between Poland and the Vatican.

One of the group’s leaders says that adopting such a programme would be a condition for entering a coalition government with other opposition parties after this autumn’s elections.

Konwencja @__Lewica #ŚwieckiePaństwo trwa. Postulujemy:
-Likwidacja Funduszu Kościelnego
– Koniec zwolnień podatkowych dla KK
– Jawność dochodów KK
– Renegocjacja konkordatu
– Likwidacja przedawnień dla pedofili
– wycofanie religii że szkół
– Wycofanie kapelanów ze szpitali. pic.twitter.com/xwZP181ZWJ

— Wanda Nowicka (@WandaNowicka) July 29, 2023

“A secular state is a condition for freedom in Poland – the freedom to decide how we want to live, who we want to love, how we want to love each other,” said Włodzimierz Czarzasty, one of The Left’s leaders, unveiling their programme on Saturday.

In particular, “women in Poland will never have their rights until the principles of a secular state are introduced”, he added, quoted by the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

Among the 14 policies outlined by The Left, many relate to ending various forms of state financing for the church. They include abolishing the Church Fund, through which the government subsidises health insurance for the clergy and the renovation of religious buildings.

The government paid 200m zloty (€45m) into the Church Fund – which subsidises priests’ health insurance contributions – in 2022, twice as much as a decade earlier.

Some opposition parties have pledged to abolish the fund if they win this year’s elections https://t.co/wa0dClUMTB

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) June 25, 2023

The Left also want the church’s tax benefits to be ended, so that it is taxed in the same manner as other non-governmental organisations.

Other proposals relate to removing the church’s presence from state institutions. They include ending state-funded Catholic catechism classes in public schools and the employment of chaplains by state entities such as hospitals and the uniformed services.

It cannot be the case that hospitals cannot afford to hire enough nurses but they spend money on employing chaplains, said Adrian Zandberg, another of The Left’s leaders.

🔴 @ZandbergRAZEM: To jest postawione na głowie, że na oddziałach polskich szpitali brakuje pielęgniarek, bo brakuje nam pieniędzy na godne płace dla osób, które tam pracują, że ludzie organizują zbiórki, żeby ratować swoje dzieciaki, bo polskie państwo nie jest w stanie zadbać o… pic.twitter.com/mWBjzyd7j8

— Lewica News 🗞️📻📺 (@Lewica_News) July 29, 2023

The Polish state currently pays over 1 billion zloty (€227 million) a year to teachers of Catholic catechism in public schools. The subject is optional but is attended by most children, although that proportion has been falling rapidly.

The Left says that it wants such classes to take place in – and be funded by – the church itself. Instead, there should be “compulsory classes in schools on health education, including on sexuality and mental health”.

The Left also wants to change a number of laws that it says privilege the church. This would include abolishing the crime of “offending religious feelings“, which currently carries a prison sentence of up to two years. That law has been used increasingly often under the current conservative government.

Teachers of Catholic catechism classes in Polish state schools are together paid over 1 billion zloty (€220 million) a year, according to public data obtained by a secularist organisation https://t.co/IIRpUMQGv4

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) September 2, 2021

The group also wants a ban on the conducting of exorcisms on minors. There are no precise figures on how many exorcisms are conducted annually in Poland, but it is estimated to be around 130 to 150.

The Left also wants the “conscience clause” that allows medics to refuse to provide treatments that conflict with their beliefs – such as abortions – to be scrapped.

“A doctor can be a Catholic – that is his personal right and no one is trying to take that away from him,” said Magdalena Biejat, another of The Left’s leaders. “But if there is a conflict between his faith and his profession, that is his issue, not the patient’s. He cannot deny them contraception or abortion.”

The Left is also calling for an ending of the statute of limitations on child sex abuse. The Catholic church in Poland has in recent years been hit by a number of revelations of historic abuse by members of the clergy and of negligence by bishops in dealing with the issue.

After a report indicated over 1,000 victims of child sex abuse by priests in communist Poland, a bishop admits the church was „naive in dealing with these crimes”

But he also notes the communists exploited the issue to blackmail priests into collaborating https://t.co/NfXywWnPkK

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) May 19, 2023

The Left also want to renegotiate the concordat between Poland and the Holy See introduced in 1998 that defines the relationship between the Catholic church and the state. If the Vatican refuses to show “goodwill in making changes”, Poland should withdraw from the agreement, says The Left.

“We are all paying for the toxic, long-term relationship between the state and the church in Poland: with our taxes, our freedom, our safety,” said one of the group’s politicians, Agata Diduszko-Zyglewska. “As The Left, we say directly: end the alliance of the throne and the altar!”

Zandberg, meanwhile, said that introducing such policies “is a hard condition” for The Left to join any coalition government after this autumn’s elections. “Poland is to be a secular state and The Left will deliver it,” he said, quoted by news website OKO.press.

Other opposition parties with whom The Left could form a coalition have also outlined policies on ensuring a separation of church and state.

Donald Tusk has pledged to separate the church from the state after winning elections

He accused bishops of becoming “government functionaries”, saying it is their fault – not that of believers such as himself – that the church has separated from society https://t.co/GOYX4jd6h0

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) May 23, 2022

Donald Tusk, leader of the centrist Civic Platform (PO), the largest opposition party, says that he would “immediately carry out the process of separation of the church from the state” after winning elections.

Szymon Hołownia – leader of another centrist group, Poland 2050 (Polska 2050), and like Tusk a practising Catholic – has also called for an end to the “corrupting” links between church and state. However, both he and Tusk are unlikely to support a programme as radical as The Left’s.

The ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, meanwhile, enjoys close relations with the church. Its leader, Jaroslaw Kaczyński, said last year that “raising a hand to the church also means raising a hand to Poland”.

Over 90% of Poland’s population are officially classified as Catholics, although the proportion that regularly practice their faith is much lower and has been falling rapidly.

A growing number of Poles are turning away from the Catholic church, but not from religious belief itself.

This creates challenges for the church, but also for Polish identity, which has historically been linked to Catholicism, writes Katarzyna Skiba https://t.co/udWGzd0X7F

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) April 18, 2023

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Main image credit: Klub Lewicy/Flickr (under public domain)

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.