For the first time since 1989, the government is breaking the law and making decisions that, in an unprecedented way, limit the significance of religion classes in the process of educating children and young people. The requirement to place religion classes directly before or after compulsory lessons, reducing the number of religion classes to one per week, the harmful possibility of combining classes, and excluding the religion grade from the overall average – these are solutions that serve neither the good of students nor any pedagogical rationale. On the contrary, such actions are a form of discrimination and intolerance towards believers in our Homeland, wrote the Polish bishops in a pastoral letter for the 15th Week of Education, which will be read in churches across Poland on Sunday, September 7.
“For the first time since 1989, the government is breaking the law and making decisions that, in an unprecedented way, limit the significance of religion classes in the process of educating children and young people,” the bishops emphasized in the letter inaugurating the Week of Education, beginning on October 14.
They pointed to changes such as limiting religion classes to one per week, the possibility of combining classes, scheduling them at the beginning or end of the school day, and excluding the religion grade from the average.
“Such actions are a form of discrimination and intolerance towards believers in our Homeland,” they wrote, recalling that the Constitutional Tribunal declared such measures unconstitutional.
The bishops stressed that the presence of religion in schools has an “educational, therapeutic, and preventive dimension,” especially in the face of growing emotional problems, aggression, and addictions among children and young people. Religion classes – they noted – help shape a hierarchy of values, teach self-discipline, and instill responsibility for one’s own decisions. They also appealed that for students who do not attend religion classes, schools should provide meaningful ethics lessons. “Education that does not include the spiritual dimension of the human being is superficial and incomplete,” they added.
In conclusion, the bishops recalled the words of Pope Leo XIV, who pointed out that in many circles today, the Christian faith is “considered absurd, something for the weak and unintelligent,” while “a believer is mocked, persecuted, despised, or at best tolerated and treated with pity.”
“One could ask whether the Polish school today is not becoming such an environment, where religion classes are treated with disregard and at best merely tolerated,” they wrote.
In their letter, members of the Polish Bishops’ Conference stressed, echoing the Pope, that the absence of faith leads to dramatic consequences: “loss of the meaning of life, forgetting mercy, violation of human dignity […], a crisis of the family, and many other wounds.”
“Religion classes are the Church’s and the school’s response to precisely these tragedies. They are not a privilege but the right of believing students and parents – a right confirmed by the Constitution,” they emphasized.
Finally, they expressed gratitude to religion teachers, educators, and school principals, and bestowed their pastoral blessing on all.
According to the new regulations, as of September 1, schools will offer only one hour of religion or ethics per week, scheduled before or after compulsory lessons.