Work on the Changes in the System of Funding the Catholic Church and Other Religious Organizations – Current Situation
The work on the changes in the system of funding churches and other religious organizations initiated by the Government in March 2012 (see Current debates/Archives/June2012, "Work on the changes in the system of funding the Catholic Church and other religious organizations") has not yet led to any final agreement. Especially, no consensus has been reached by the teams appointed for that purpose by the Government and the Catholic Church. Nevertheless, Michał Boni, the Minister of Administration and Digitisation, put out the draft concerning the new funding policy for public consultation on 26th July 2013 (i.e., the Act amending the Act on guarantees of freedom of conscience and religion, among other Acts). During the public consultation procedure, the representatives of both the Catholic Church (primarily the Secretariat of the Polish Episcopal Conference acting in collaboration with the Apostolic Nunciature) and other religious organizations submitted a number of comments on the draft (see the Ministry of administration and digitisation website, in Polish). The major concern was that the draft had not been agreed upon by religious organizations, as required by legal regulations in Poland. As explained by Minister Boni, however, the public consultation procedure for the draft did not exclude the possibility of concluding relevant agreements. Once the public consultation procedure had been completed, the teams appointed by the Government and the Catholic Church resumed their work. The meetings of the representatives of the Government and non-Catholic religious organizations were also resumed. The work was, however, discontinued due to the appointment of a new Minister of Administration and Digitisation in November 2013 (Michał Boni was replaced by Rafał Trzaskowski).