LEGAL FRAMEWORK ON FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND ACTUAL APPLICATION
The Constitution of Poland provides for freedom of religion and conscience, continuing the tradition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which was the first state in Europe to grant religious tolerance in a law known as the Confederation or Compact of Warsaw of 1573. The Preamble to the Constitution explicitly mentions God and the Christian heritage of the nation, while including, at the same time, those who do not believe in God but respect the universal values of truth, justice, good and beauty.
The relations between the Republic of Poland and the Churches are based on a model of cooperation, which is expressed in Article 25 (3) of the 1997 constitution, where the principle of respect of autonomy and of cooperation for the individual and the common good are enshrined.
Article 25 (2) guarantees the legal equality of all Churches and religious organisations and stipulates (4 and 5) that the state regulates its relations with the Roman Catholic Church and other religious organisations through bilateral accords. The relations between the state and the Catholic Church are formally regulated in a concordat signed in 1993.
Article 53 (1 and 2) guarantees everyone freedom of conscience and religion.
Under Article 53 (3), “Parents shall have the right to ensure their children a moral and religious upbringing and teaching in accordance with their convictions.”
Article 53 (5) states, “the freedom to publicly express religion may be limited only by means of statute and only where this is necessary for the defense of state security, public order, health, morals or the freedoms and rights of others.”
The constitution (Art 85,1-3) recognizes the right to conscientious objection to military service on religious grounds but states such objectors may be required to perform alternative service as specified by law.
Issues concerning religious freedom are also found in Poland’s Penal Code. Article 196 states: “Whoever offends the religious feelings of other persons by outraging in public an object of religious worship or a place dedicated to the public celebration of religious rites, shall be subject to a fine, the penalty of restriction of liberty or the penalty of deprivation of liberty for up to 2 years.” Article 195 declares that the same penalty applies to “whoever maliciously interferes with the public performance of a religious ceremony of a church or another religious association with regulated legal status.”
The Polish government marks on 22nd August the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief under the aegis of the United Nations.
Religious communities wanting to obtain legal privileges must register following a specific procedure. There have been cases when registration was refused, and sometimes it can be overturned. There are 15 registered religious groups; in November 2022 there were 191 churches and religious communities applying for registration.
INCIDENTS AND DEVELOPMENTS
The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) recorded 165 hate crimes in 2021. With respect to religious bias motivations, according to the ODIHR database in 2021, there were 19 hate crimes against Jews, two against Muslims, and 144 against Christians. Hate crimes reported by ODIHR concerned mostly the Catholic Church and its members. Deputy Prosecutor General, Krzysztof Sierak indicated that the number of crimes to the detriment of the Catholic Church and insults of religious feelings to the detriment of Christians increased from 59 criminal proceedings in 2016 to 106 proceedings in 2021.
According to data presented by the Torun-based Laboratory of Religious Freedom in 2021, there were 137 incidents against Christians: eight physical attacks mostly on Roman Catholic priests, 119 desecration and damage of worship places and objects, and 10 other incidents including incitement to hatred. In 2022, there were four physical attacks on Christians, all targeting Roman Catholic priests, 97 incidents of desecration and damage of worship places and religious objects or symbols, and 10 other incidents including incitement to hatred. The incidents indicated are representative.
During the period under review, there were a number of cases of vandalism of Roman Catholic and Jewish religious sites, “including churches, monuments, and cemeteries”.
In January and July 2021, a man was sentenced to five years and five months in prison and a second man to a three-year prison term respectively “for planning a terrorist attack against the Muslim community in the country” by the Warsaw District Court.
On 28 April, President Duda took part in the March of the Living from Auschwitz to Birkenau. In a speech at Birkenau, he stated, “We shout out our ‘No’ to hatred! No to antisemitism!… The one who commits murders, who violates international law, must be held liable, severely and unconditionally. No more war! No more Holocaust! May the memory of those murdered live eternally!”
Anti-Semitism, throughout the period under review, was stoked through such groups such as the Compatriot Companionship, also known as “the Comrades” who, at rallies in Grudziadz and Kalisz respectively, called for the “killing of Jews and discrimination against them and insulted persons of Jewish descent”.
On 22 July, police charged two young men with “malicious disruption of a religious act and offending religious sentiment” by reportedly “drinking alcohol, smoking, and speaking loudly and offensively” during a Catholic mass and, upon exiting, urinating on a cross outside the building.
In January 2022, Polish National Police approved a 2022-2025 action plan “against hate speech and hate crimes based on nationality, ethnicity, race, and religion as well as the promotion of fascism and other totalitarian ideologies”.
On January 18, at a New Year’s gathering for religious representatives and ethnic minorities, President Duda underscored “the importance of the country’s traditions, under which different faiths lived together and shared common values”.
On 24 February, the Community of Conscience, comprised of 12 representatives from Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox churches as well as Jewish and Muslim leaders, condemned the Russian Federation for invading Ukraine, declared solidarity with the Ukrainian people, and invited government institutions, churches and religious associations, “to provide all necessary support to the citizens of Ukraine who may seek refuge in Poland in the future”.
For over 25 years, the Roman Catholic Church has celebrated the Annual Day of Judaism and Annual Day of Islam. Interreligious efforts remain an initiative of the Catholic Church with the stated intent to encourage peace.
In October 2020, Poland was shaken by protests following a Constitutional Tribunal ruling stating that a law permitting abortion for fetal abnormalities was unconstitutional. The protests included vandalism of Catholic churches, abuse of Catholic clergy and disruptions of Catholic masses. In October 2022, two years after the so called “Black Protest”, a member of the Polish parliament, Johanna Scheuring-Wielgus, was stripped of her immunity. The removal of the political privilege was due to an incident on 25 October 2020, where she led a group protesting the Constitutional Tribunal ruling into the church of St. Jacob in Toruń disturbing the celebration of mass.
On 4 October 2022, the justice minister, Zbigniew Ziobro, introduced a draft proposal of amendments to the Article 196 of the Penal Code. The proposal was a response to “a steep rise in what he described as a violation of religious freedom” – 163 criminal proceedings over six years from 2008 to 2015, in comparison with 2,400 criminal proceedings in similar period from 2016 to 2021.
As indicated above, Article 196 states: “Whoever offends the religious feelings of other persons by outraging in public an object of religious worship or a place dedicated to the public celebration of religious rites, shall be subject to a fine, the penalty of restriction of liberty or the penalty of deprivation of liberty for up to 2 years.”
According to the Polish business daily, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, the wording of Article 196 was proposed to be changed to: “Whoever publicly insults or ridicules the Church or another religious association with regulated legal status, its dogmas and rituals shall be subject to a fine, the penalty of restriction of liberty or the penalty of deprivation of liberty for up to 2 years.” The same punishment was “to apply to people ‘who publicly insult an object of religious worship or a place intended for the public performance of religious rites.’”
The initiative by Zbigniew Ziobro, founder of the Solidarna Polska party, failing to receive support from the main ruling party, Law and Justice (PiS), launched a citizens’ legislative initiative titled “In Defence of Christians’ Freedom” for which at least 100,000 signatures were required. Ziobro stated on 4 October that Solidarna Polska had collected almost 400,000 signatures. The “In Defence of Christians’ Freedom” initiative was submitted to the Sejm; at the end of 2022 it was still awaiting processing.
Without prior notification, on 22 October 2022, Google shut down a daily YouTube broadcast of continuous adoration of the Blessed Sacrament from Niepokalanów on the Catholic TV channel EWTN Polska. The EWTN Youtube channel, followed by approximately one million users per month, had been previously censored, blocked for the first time in April 2021 for 24hrs.
There were several religious freedom issues related to the geopolitical situation resulting from the war in Ukraine. Most notably was one of solidarity where, upon the invitation of the President, Andrzej Duda, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew visited Poland in March 2022 to bless and offer consolation to the countless refugees taking shelter in the country following the outbreak of war in Ukraine.
PROSPECTS
Contrary to several countries where minority religious groups suffer incidents with religious bias, in Poland the majoritarian religion was the object of repeated religious freedom violations. During the period under review, Catholic priests were victims of physical assaults, and Catholic places of worship and monuments, especially churches, were targets of desecration and vandalism.
Although the socio-economic environment remains under pressure from tensions related to the war in Ukraine, and despite the aforementioned religious freedom violations, there were positive signs. Political voices encouraged the shared common values between religious traditions, concrete efforts were enacted such as the National Police 2022-2025 action plan, and positive interreligious relations such as the Community of Conscience, point to a positive assessment for prospects for freedom of religion in the country.
Poland