WARSAW — In 2020, a Polish court ruling placed a near total ban on abortions, and Poland became the only European country to remove abortion as a right. Though the ruling was applauded by President Andrzej Duda, his party’s staunch supporters, and the Catholic church, it angered millions of Polish women, many of whom had already been impacted by Poland’s restrictive abortion laws.
What followed were the biggest protests in modern-day Poland since the Solidarity movement, and a notable break in the long-standing taboo of challenging the Catholic church. Hundreds of thousands of protestors poured out on to the streets, eventually bringing their discontent into churches and disrupting masses. Aside from demanding an end to the newly-imposed ban, activists and protestors also called for LGBTQ rights, and a secular state.
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Though the protests were not successful in overturning the court ruling, they left a lasting impact on Polish politics, and introduced the call for separation of church and state into the popular consensus for the first time since 1989. Now, some in Poland’s new government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk are calling for the measure to be implemented.
According to Poland’s Statistical Agency (GUS), 71% of its population identifies as Catholic. Though still high, this figure is a notable comedown from the highs of 87.6% in 2011. The number of Poles regularly practicing their religion has dropped even further to only 43%. These trends are especially drastic among young Poles and in large cities.
But while other strongholds of Catholicism in Europe, such as Ireland and Italy, have slowly begun to move away from the church, Polish institutions and politics remain closely linked to it in many ways.
Funding for religion
In the 1990s, as Poland was transitioning from communism, figures within the church, especially former Pope John Paul II, were credited with aiding its fall. During communist times, religious practice itself seen as an act of rebellion against the government. After the fall, the church began enjoying special status, both politically and within Polish society at large. Compensation for its losses under the communist government made the Catholic church Poland’s single largest landlord, and the institution continues to receive funding from the state.
In the 1990s, religion also began to enter Polish public schools. This was the result of a formal agreement or a concordat with the Holy See. While the classes are financed with public money, the teachers, most often priests or nuns, are selected by the church itself.
Though these classes are optional, in 1991, when they were first introduced, 81% of Polish students attended them. In 2010, this number touched 93%. Since then, however, attendance has been on the decline, and in 2018, only 70% of Polish students enrolled for the classes. The drop in religious-class attendance has been affecting all of Poland, but it has been particularly pronounced in urban areas. In Łódź, Poland’s fourth-largest city, just over half of all students now attend them.
“Someone here wants to profoundly change, or rather destroy, our nation.”
Last year, Częstochowa became the first city in Poland to call for an end of municipal funding for religion classes, citing high costs and shrinking student enrollment. The city of over 200,000 is known as the home of the hallowed Jasna Góra monastery, which has been the site of Law and Justice campaign events. During this year’s electoral campaign, several senior party officials, including party leader Jarosław Kaczyński, education minister Przemysław Czarnek, and defense minister Mariusz Błaszczak greeted a group of Poles who had made a pilgrimage to the monastery.
“Our basic values, the foundations of our social order, our customs are being attacked”, Kaczyński said in a speech given at the monastery, adding that “someone here wants to profoundly change, or rather destroy, our nation, this community that has existed for over 1,000 years”.
Left v. Church
But as frequent as religious motifs have been in Poland’s electoral campaign, campaigns against the presence of the Church have been cropping up with increasing frequency. Most notably Lewica or the Left has been advocating for complete secularization, including the abolition of religious education in public schools, the elimination of the conscience clause allowing medical practitioners to decline terminating a pregnancy based on moral objection, and the repeal of laws against “offending religious feelings”, which currently attract a fine or a prison sentence of up to two years.
“If someone is offended by artwork that makes use of religious symbols, then they don’t have to look at it”, member of the Sejm Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus told Polish magazine Duży Format, describing the religious blasphemy laws as “a sword in the hands of politicians, rather than real Catholics”.
While Law and Justice has been the Polish party most associated with the Catholic church and Lewica the least, opposition leaders have also openly identified with the faith. Opposition party leaders Donald Tusk and Szymon Hołownia have said that they practice the faith. During his 2005 Presidential campaign, when his religious views were called into question, Tusk went so far as to have a religious marriage ceremony with his wife, Małgorzata. They had married in a civil ceremony 27 years earlier.
Still, leaders within the Polish opposition have advocated for the removal of the church from the political sphere. “There is no other way than to unequivocally, immediately after winning the elections, carry out the process of separating the Church from the state with all its consequences”, said Tusk.
The extent to which the church should be involved in Polish politics, if at all, is up for debate within the Polish opposition. While Lewica advocates for its complete removal, Civic Platform is pushing for religion classes to not show up on student transcripts. Still, the opposition seems to contend that while they themselves may be practicing Catholics, they don’t expect the state to follow suit.
“We will defend Christian values, but we do not agree to politics in the Church”, said Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, the president of the Polish People’s Party.
