RMF FM was the first to report that the parliamentary bill on the liquidation of the Church Fund would be sent to the Marshal's staff today.
We can't wait any longer. The government project is unlikely to come out of the Council of Ministers (…). We made a promise to our voters and we intend to keep it. We expect the Civic Coalition to support our bill (...) - said the head of the Left Club, Anna Maria Żukowska, in an interview with RMF FM.
The matter was commented on by Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, president of the Polish People's Party, which co-founds, among others, government coalition with the New Left.
This project, which the Left is submitting today, will not pass in the Polish Sejm. We will defend smaller churches, smaller religious associations, such as the Orthodox Church, and evangelicals - said the Deputy Prime Minister when asked about the topic while summarizing the use of KPO funds in Małopolska.
The head of PSL added that there are several proposals regarding financing the Church, but there is no agreement on them, including no agreement within the government coalition.
According to the head of the Ministry of National Defense, the Left's proposal is unagreed and "has no chance of support in parliament." It is also - according to Kosiniak-Kamysz - a "political game of the Left".
We have our own idea of a tax write-off. Let Poles decide whether they want or do not want to pay some part of their taxes - said the head of PSL, noting that such a solution prevails in many European countries.
He added that he is a defender of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion. He also emphasized that PSL supports the separation of the state from the Church and the Church from the state, and also supports friendly relations between the state and the Church.
The leader of the People's Party also recalled that the Church Fund was created because the communists were plundering the property of various religious communities in Poland and did not want religion to develop. And freedom of religion - emphasized the head of the Ministry of National Defense - "is one of the basic elements of a democratic state of law, to which we returned 100 percent in 1989."
The Church Fund - according to the president of the Polish People's Party - is the cheapest form of compensation for churches, and other forms are more expensive, according to the calculations of the Ministry of Finance.
On Thursday, Left MPs announced the submission of a bill on the liquidation of the Church Fund. It assumes that churches will finance themselves and 50% of social security contributions will be paid. Church, and 50 percent clergy. This is a parliamentary project because the Left - as its politicians told it - "couldn't wait for it to materialize in the form of a government project."
The Left is not against the faithful, it is not against faith, but patience is running out, said the Speaker of the Sejm, Włodzimierz Czarzasty, at a press conference.
In his opinion, "it is high time to look at the functioning of the concordat and whether the concordat provisions are being implemented or extended, and whether the concordat should function in this formula."
Let me remind my friends and coalition partners: in the coalition agreement we have a provision about striving to introduce the principles of a secular state in Poland. We have a question: how long will this Church Fund continue to operate? Why do we pay ZUS and priests do not pay ZUS? – asked the marshal.
The head of the Evangelical Augsburg Church in Poland, Bishop Jerzy Samiec, told PAP that the Evangelical Augsburg Church was not informed about the submission of such a request to the Sejm.
Nobody consulted anything with us. We were not treated as a partner. The project was submitted by the Left, which is currently in the government. We expect the government to treat various entities as partners. “Right now we are treated like objects,” he said.
It's not just about clergy insurance. It is also a matter of maintaining monuments and various pro-social activities carried out by churches, such as nursing homes and orphanages that we run, he said.
According to bishop Samca Churches run many institutions, the activities of which they subsidize.
When the Church runs a nursing home, it receives funds from the local government for patient maintenance and salaries for nurses, doctors and caregivers. But the properties are maintained entirely by the Churches, and this requires expenditure. We don't talk about this anymore, said Bishop Samiec.
"This is an election sausage. Of course, no one will liquidate the Church Fund now" - this is how the New Left commented on the draft bill submitted to the Sejm today by the New Left. prof. Andrzej Kobyliński, head of the Department of Ethics at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, on online Radio RMF24.
The Church Fund was established under the Act of March 20, 1950 on the state's takeover of the estates of the dead, guaranteeing parish priests the ownership of agricultural farms and establishing the Church Fund. According to the assumptions, it was to be a form of compensation for churches and religious associations for land properties taken over from them by the state.
Currently, all religious associations operating legally in Poland benefit from the Church Fund, including those that did not operate in our country in 1950 and did not lose any properties. 95 percent The expenses of the Church Fund are currently social security contributions for clergy. The state budget for 2026 guarantees expenses for the Church Fund in the amount of PLN 272,560,000. zloty.
