Ruling conservatives criticise Warsaw mayor for stopping priests leading prayers in schools

A row has erupted in Warsaw after city hall reminded public schools that priests should not be permitted to lead prayers during ceremonies nor conduct blessings of newly opened buildings.

Members of Poland’s conservative ruling party have accused the city’s opposition mayor, Rafał Trzaskowski, of leading a campaign against religion. His spokeswoman responds that the city is simply enforcing the secular state in accordance with the constitution.

The dispute began after Warsaw’s deputy mayor, Renata Kaznowska, wrote to the principals of the city’s schools reminding them that “opening ceremonies of educational institutions should respect…rights stemming from the constitution”, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

She pointed to article 53 of the constitution, which states that parents have the “right to ensure their children a moral and religious upbringing and teaching in accordance with their convictions” and that “no one shall be compelled to participate or not participate in religious practices”.

Her letter followed complaints from parents at a school about the fact that, during its opening ceremony, a priest led a prayer and blessed various rooms in the building, reports Gazeta Wyborcza. The issue had also been officially raised by a member of the city’s council who attended that ceremony.

“People of other faiths and non-believers, including children, are forced to participate in [Catholic] religious practices, which is contrary to the principle of respecting the secular nature of the school,” wrote Dorota Łoboda, who is from the mayor’s centrist Civic Platform (PO) party.

Łoboda said that no prayers should be conducted in schools apart from at (optional) Catholic catechism classes, and that blessing ceremonies for new facilities should not take place.

In response, two councillors from Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, one of whom is also a deputy minister, accused the city authorities of “consciously and deliberately provoking a clash of worldviews in the capital”, reports PAP.

“One of Trzaskowski’s slogans was ‘Warsaw for all’,” noted Cezary Jurkiewicz, the leader of PiS’s contingent on the city council, at a press conference outside city hall. “So I want to ask one thing: if it is for everyone, [then why] not for priests?”

“This is yet another case of Rafał Trzaskowski’s administration fighting the presence of the church in social life,” said Błażej Poboży, a PiS councillor and deputy interior minister. “In a veiled but unambiguous way, it suggests the need to eliminate all [religious] symbols from school ceremonies.”

“Will the next step be the removal of crosses from educational establishments?” asked Poboży. Jurkiewicz likened the Warsaw authorities’ actions to efforts to remove crosses from schools during the communist era, reports Gazeta Wyborcza.

Poboży argued that such decisions should be left in the hands of school principals. If they have “many students of other faiths, they should ensure the representation of clergy of other religions”, he suggested.

Warsaw city spokeswoman Karolina Gałecka, however, argued that the PiS councillors’ concerns were misplaced. “The letter is only a reminder that we live in a secular state and that, in accordance with the constitution, respect should be paid to everyone’s right to a different religion,” she said.

“We are not interfering in any way with the symbol of the cross in schools” and “there are no plans” to remove them, nor has “anybody submitted such a request”, she clarified.

Moreover, she noted that Kaznowska’s letter “does not prohibit clergy from participating in school ceremonies”. They have “the right to do so, as do all other teachers”. But they should “not lead prayers at these ceremonies, because some pupils and parents may not want this”.

Gałecka pointed out that in Warsaw’s high schools, the majority of students now do not take religion classes. These are optional Catholic catechism lessons hosted and funded by public schools but with curriculums and teachers chosen by the church.

She said that town hall had therefore recommended that schools organise such classes as either the first or last lesson of the day, so that pupils who do attend them can avoid a gap in the middle of their timetable.

The move by some schools to put catechism classes at the start or end of the day has faced criticism from the Catholic church, which believes that is contributes to a declining number of pupils attending.

Earlier this month, the Bishop of Świdnica, Marek Mendyk, warned of “disturbing information that many young people do not participate in religion classes because they are held at an inconvenient time”. He called on parents to “demand that the school schedule be rearranged”.

At the Catholic episcopate’s recent plenary meeting, Poland’s bishops heard warnings of the “systematic decline” in the number of young people in Poland who attend religion classes. A majority still do so, but the figure has been falling rapidly over the last decade.

Poland’s constitution requires that “public authorities shall be impartial in matters of personal conviction, whether religious or philosophical”, and says that “the relationship between the state and churches…shall be based on autonomy…and mutual independence”.

However, in a country where over 90% of the population are classified as Catholic, religious symbols such as crosses or images of popes remain common in schools. A cross also hangs in the main chamber of the Polish parliament. Left-wing MPs recently called for it to be removed.

The Left (Lewica), which is the third largest group in parliament, has also called for the state to stop funding Catholic catechism classes, and for public schools to stop hosting them. A Kantar poll last year found that 54% of Poles think the lessons should remain in schools, but that 64% want the church itself to fund them.

In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that a school had discriminated against a teacher who removed a cross hanging in the staff room. The employer had “created an atmosphere of hostility” against her and allowed her to be “harassed and ostracised due to her beliefs”, found the judges. The school was ordered to apologise and pay her compensation.

Main image credit: Adam Stepien / Agencja Gazeta

Daniel Tilles

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.