The archbishop of Kraków, Marek Jędraszewski, has used his Christmas sermon to criticise a recent decision by President Andrzej Duda to block a contested law tightening the government’s grip on education in the country.
The archbishop, a prominent voice in Poland’s Catholic church well known for a number of previous controversial statements, also expressed his concern over a local government’s attempts to strip Catholic catechism classes of public funding.
“You must not, in the name of peace, make concessions and as a result deprive parents of complete knowledge of what some so-called NGOs want to preach to little children in school and pre-schools, in fact corrupting their pure and innocent hearts,” he said, referring to the law, which was supposed to prohibit organisations from teaching extracurricular classes without the approval of the government-appointed regional superintendent.
The law, proposed for the second time by education minister Przemysław Czarnek and passed by the parliament with the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party votes, was recently vetoed by Poland’s president as it “has not received wide social acceptance”.
Czarnek argued that such a law is necessary to prevent “moral corruption” of children. The opposition and many experts, however, said it was really intended to increase political control over education.
Jędraszewski rejected these voices, noting that in shaping educational policy based on “rational anthropology” one must not “be guided by the fear of dissatisfaction or even protests from those who don’t accept it”.
In his sermon, Jędraszewski also expressed his concern caused by attempts to remove Catholic catechism lessons from public schools.
The first step, according to the archbishop, would be to stop paying the salaries of its teachers (often priests or nuns). It would mean a “breach of the Concordat” (an agreement signed between the Vatican and the Polish state) as well as a “breaking of the most obvious law of paying for work”.
“What’s even worse is that instead of strengthing pupils in their Polish cultural identity… this will lead them into the world of an axiological void and nihilism,” said Jędraszewski.
Earlier this month the city of Częstochowa became the first in Poland to appeal to the prime minister and education minister to let the city stop paying funds for religion classes from the municipal budget. Local councillors argued that the costs are too high and noted that the number of students attending is rapidly declining.
Takie kazania jak to arcybiskupa Marka Jędraszewskiego to niegodne wykorzystywanie święta, sacrum, tego, co dla chrześcijan najważniejsze, dla promowania bliskiej sobie partii, a konkretniej niewielkiej jej części. 5/5
— Tomasz Terlikowski (@tterlikowski) December 25, 2022
The archbishop’s comments prompted accusations of an attempt to include political content in the Christmas sermon.
“The homily during Midnight Mass…is not the space to support Lex Czarnek 2.0… or criticise the president’s decision,” said a prominent Catholic commentator, Tomasz Terlikowski. He added that such statements are “unworthy use of the sacred day…for promotion of a political party”.
Main image credit: EpiskopatNews/ Flickr
Agnieszka Wądołowska is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She has previously worked for Gazeta.pl and Tokfm.pl and contributed to Gazeta Wyborcza, Wysokie Obcasy, Duży Format, Midrasz and Kultura Liberalna
