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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
The longstanding head of Poland’s Catholic Information Agency (KAI) – a news service established by the church – has resigned from his position in protest against what he says are efforts by the country’s bishops to establish “totalitarian” control over its work.
According to leaked documents obtained by other media outlets, KAI’s board believes that the church’s move to take greater control over the agency is “illegal” and intended to turn it into a “propaganda” outlet.
NEWS ONETU: Redaktor naczelny Marcin Przeciszewski po 32 latach pracy jako szef Katolickiej Agencji Prasowej złożył dymisję — dowiedział się Onet. To efekt planów Episkopatu, który chce przekształcić swoje media w jedno wielkie konsorcjum.https://t.co/1etR4Zp1yy
— Szymon Piegza (@sz_piegza) June 27, 2025
On Friday, Onet, a leading news website, first reported that Marcin Przeciszewski, who has led KAI since its establishment in 1993, was resigning as editor-in-chief and head of its management board.
He did so in response to plans by the Polish Episcopal Conference (KEP), the central organ of the Catholic church in Poland, to effectively end the editorial independence of KAI and subordinate it to KEP’s press office as part of a newly proposed “KEP Media Consortium”, wrote Onet.
The KEP’s aim is to ensure a “coherent and synchronised communication policy…[and] media strategy for the entire church in Poland”, especially in “response to crisis situations”, according to a document authored by KEP spokesman Leszek Gęsiak and obtained by Onet.
In response to Onet’s report, Przeciszewski issued a statement confirming that he had resigned due to “the actions of the Polish Episcopal Conference…aimed at the effective liquidation of the Catholic Information Agency…by incorporating [it] into the ‘KEP Media Consortium'”.
That move would “essentially incapacitate the KAI board and the possibility of any journalistic independence within the agency”, wrote Przeciszewski. He said that the aim of the new venture was not to provide reliable reporting but, as the KEP itself had written, to “produce positive information” about the church.
Przeciszewski said that KEP’s plans were “a return to solutions known from totalitarian times”. He also argued that they would be illegal, because the law requires that media groups respect the autonomy of the boards of companies that are their members.
Wobec zapowiadanych zmian, zgodnie z sumieniem oraz wierny profesjonalizmowi dziennikarskiemu, nie pozostaje mi nic innego jak wycofać się z funkcji prezesa zarządu – pisze @marcinprzecisz1 https://t.co/pFXL1AgOps
— eKAI (@ekaipl) June 27, 2025
On Saturday, another leading news website, Wirtualna Polska, obtained and published a copy of a strongly negative opinion issued by KAI’s board on the bishops’ plan to effectively take over the agency.
It called the idea “contrary to the law” and “a return to solutions known from totalitarian times” that would result in the production of “propaganda materials” for the church.
Wirtualna Polska’s findings indicate that one reason behind KEP’s plans is the bishops’ longstanding dissatisfaction with some of KAI’s reporting, for example on the issue of sexual abuse by priests. They have been unsuccessfully applying pressure on the agency to change its line.
Earlier this year, for example, Przeciszewski himself criticised the KEP’s “incomprehensible decision” to appoint as the new head of a church commission on child abuse a bishop with no experience in the area.
"Plan Gęsiaka", czyli Episkopat szykuje zamach na wolność słowa. Biskupi chcą zamienić KAI w tubę propagandową
✒️@patrykmichalski https://t.co/Qdfmkvc0Bn
— Wirtualna Polska (@wirtualnapolska) June 28, 2025
The KEP has not yet commented on Przeciszewski’s resignation nor on reports of its alleged plans to overhaul KAI and other church-linked media outlets.
The Catholic church in Poland remains an extremely influential institution, with 71% of Poles identifying as Catholics according to the 2021 national census.
However, it has faced a number of crises in recent years that have challenged its authority, including a series of revelations of cases of sex abuse by members of the clergy and of negligence in dealing with them by the bishops, a number of whom have been punished by the Vatican as a result.
The church has also been accused of interfering in political affairs, in particular through its support for an unpopular near-total abortion ban introduced under the former national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government and for its close relations with PiS more broadly.
A growing number of Poles are turning away from the Catholic church, but not from religious belief itself.
This creates challenges for the church, but also for Polish identity, which has historically been linked to Catholicism, writes Katarzyna Skiba https://t.co/udWGzd0X7F
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) April 18, 2023
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Jacek Marczewski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl
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.
