Catholic catechism in Poland public schools reduces

RELIGIONS NEWS AGNCY (RDNA) – Poland’s new education minister outlined plans to reduce state-funded teaching of Catholic catechism in public schools.

According to NFP a senior church official bui has called for dialogue on any such changes.

He notes that religious teaching in schools is guaranteed in Poland’s agreement with the Vatican.

The new coalition government has pledged to create a clearer line between church and state following eight years of rule by the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party.

On Wednesday, the same day that Poland’s new government was sworn into office, incoming education minister Barbara Nowacka said in an interview with broadcaster TVN that she would like to see the number of state-funded catechism classes halved to one hour a week.

The classes, which are optional but attended by most pupils, are hosted and funded by public schools but with teachers and curriculums chosen by the Catholic church.

Nowacka argued that “two hours of religion lessons is excessive” given that it is more than pupils have for some other academic subjects.

In response to Nowacka’s remarks, Artur Miziński, the general secretary of the Polish Bishops’ Conference (KEP), the central organ of the Catholic church in Poland, said that “any work on this should be carried out primarily in dialogue with the church”.

Miziński also noted that the presence of catechism classes in schools is required under the terms of the concordat Poland signed with the Vatican in 1993.

A poll last year by IBRiS found that 44% of Poles want religion classes removed from schools entirely. In 2019, a Kantar poll found that 66% want religion classes to be funded by the church and another, by SW Research, found that 55.5% wanted to end state funding for the classes.

Across Poland as a whole, over 80% of pupils in schools and preschools attended the optional classes in the 2021/22 school year. The 2021 national census showed that 71% of the country’s population identify as Catholics.

Attendance at the classes has been declining in recent years, in particular in large towns and cities. Last year, only 29% of high school students in Warsaw opted in for the lessons. Two cities, Wrocław and Częstochowa, have asked to be released from their obligation to fund the subject.