Barbara Nowacka does not intend to scope an agreement with the Polish Episcopal Conference on the lessons of religion. As he claims, the concordat requires specified lessons to be, but their organization is simply a separate issue.
The gathering of the Committee of Joint Representatives of the Government of the Republic of Poland and the Polish Episcopal Conference on spiritual Lessons took place on 9 December. In the communication sent to PAP, the church organization informed that it had not brought an agreement. The Episcopate announced that further legal steps would be taken in the face of violations of the existing rules.
According to Nowacka, the MEN Regulation does not change the provisions of the concordat, so in this case, "agreement with the church organization is not necessary".
"This concerns the issue of organizing spiritual lessons, not the very fact of their existence. We are not questioning the concordat, which assumes that spiritual lessons are to be organized by the school, but we are talking about their dimension," she said.
She stressed that the ministry invited the ecclesiastical side to the dialogue, but presented "more and more progressive expectations". "It would be very hard for the government to take this into account," she said.
According to Nowacka, KEP expected the ministry to retreat from all existing merger regulations into interclass divisions and not include religion and ethics in average ratings.
"There were besides expectations that religion and ethics should be compulsory. There's no plan, never been. Even the erstwhile government did not decide to make religion and ethics a compulsory subject," she noted.
According to the head of the MEN, making religion and ethics compulsory would mean "an overburden of youth", and the ministry would alternatively relieve it. "This is unacceptable," she said.
She said that “the subject of spiritual lessons is over.” "When the position of the Church does not change, or (the church side – PAP) requires that there must be compulsory religion or ethics and then we will gradually be able to limit the lessons of religion, it does not seem possible to us, due to the fact that it is blocking the actions of a government that is not lawful or necessary," she said.
The problem is that the concordat requires that changes in the organization of spiritual lessons be introduced in agreement with the Catholic Church. It is hard to talk of an agreement in a situation where the MEN make changes and put the Church before the facts made, without agreeing to any concessions. Hence, it is understandable that bishops talk of violating the applicable law.
On 9 December, they pointed out this by writing in a message after discussions with the MEN: “[The church page] besides recalled that the regulation by the Minister of Education of matters relating to the organisation of the teaching of religion in kindergartens and schools requires action “in agreement with the authorities of the Catholic Church and the Polish Autokephalical Orthodox Church and another churches and spiritual associations” (Article 12(2) of the Education Act), as confirmed by the Constitutional Court in its judgement of 27 November 2024.
According to the July amendment to the MEN Regulation on the organisation of spiritual lessons, the school head (preschool) will be able to combine groups of children from different classes and classrooms more easy in spiritual classes. From next year of school in public schools, religion and ethics are expected to take place in 1 hr a week, before or after compulsory education. This is the thought of a task that went into consultation. Currently, the teaching of religion in public schools is organised in 2 lessons per week, and as far as ethics are concerned, the weekly dimension of the hours is determined by the school head.
After the gathering of the Commission of the Joint Representatives of the Government of the Republic of Poland and the Polish Episcopal Conference, the church side communicated to PAP that its proposals included, among others, "the introduction of the rule of compulsory teaching of religion or ethics due to the request for axiological formation of students". In addition, it besides proposed "a gradual, time-consuming simplification of the teaching dimension of religion in secondary schools, while respecting the rights of staff catechets". "The situation should stay unchanged in primary schools", added.
The church side besides opposed the government’s proposed simplification of spiritual lessons to 1 hr a week. In her opinion, "it is unjustified and discriminatory to adopt the rule that spiritual lessons are to be placed before or after another school activities".
"The changes introduced, in the opinion of the church side, will consequence in the demolition of the strategy of teaching religion in Polish public schools" - the Communication states.
Sources: PAP 
, PCh24.pl
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