The new government announced changes in the relationship with the church. Among others, they refer to: the church fund. However, as it turns out, some Poles would go further and even denounce the Concordat. Here are the results of a recent survey on this issue.
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Recently survey In this case, combined studies were conducted for Wirtualna Polska. Respondents were asked whether they agreed with the opinion that “The new government must terminate the concordat with the church and renegotiating the rules between state and church.
Should the government end the Concordat? New survey results
48.6 percent of the respondents were in favor of terminating the Concordat. 35 percent answered “definitely agree” and 13.6 percent said “I agree.”
33.1 percent He was of the opposite opinion. 16.7% chose “disagree more”, and “strongly disagree” – 16.4%. 18.3% have no opinion on this matter. respondents.
The study also details the results in terms of political affiliation. “Voters of the governing coalition (Civil Coalition, Third Way, Left) overwhelmingly support the Concordat of Changes,” reads a survey on the WP website.
That's what he was referring to 69 percent 13% of respondents had the opposite opinion, and 18% have no opinion on this issue. When it comes to law and justice and confederation, i.e. today's opposition, how much 71 percent There was an opinion that it should not be introduced Amendments to the Concordat. 7 percent were of the opposite opinion. 22 percent did not know what answer to choose.
We remind you that it was signed on July 28, 1993 in Warsaw Concordat between the Holy See and the Republic of Poland. It regulates the relationship between secular and ecclesiastical authorities. However, in recent years (especially under the PiS government), the church has become a very privileged institution in Poland.
It is important that after the session of the Seimas on Wednesday, the Prime Minister Donald Tusk He spoke about the further relations between the church foundation and the Polish state and the church. In the future, there will be changes in its financing.
Tusk announces changes in church funding
– We decided to create an inter-ministerial team that: It will concern the change of the financing of the church and pensions for clergy – Prime Minister Tusk told the media.
This team will include Władysław Kosniak-Kamis, Marcin Kierwiński, Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Beck, Andrzej Domanski and representatives of the Government Legislative Center. – From today, the team started working on changing the financing of the church fund, – said the head of the government on Wednesday.
He added: – We will wait impatiently for the results of this team. I am interested in open and honest consultations. I want to emphasize that we want to civilize this relationship: state-church.
Tusk also said he wanted changes to target voluntary deductions at 1%. from church taxes by citizens.
But what are the funds of the church fund used for? Most of it is spent on social and health insurance. As he said Onet, in 2023 it was 213.8 million PLN (224.8 million PLN in 2022), that is, it is 95 percent. entire fund.
A lot of money is also spent on renovating historic religious buildings. In 2021, the church fund spent 11.1 million PLN for this purpose, in 2022 – 9.9 million PLN, and in 2023 – 10.8 million PLN.
He gets the most money for repairs Catholic Church. In 2021-2023, it was PLN 10.6 million, PLN 9.5 million and PLN 10.3 million, respectively. We write about it in detail here.