Freedom of religion is the basis of social peace and harmonious improvement of all state. The authors of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland knew this well, putting wide guarantees for spiritual freedom in the Polish law. Under her regulations Poles have the right to freely profess and practice their religion both in private life and in public space, and to teach their children their religion in public schools.
Moreover, religion is the only school subject mentioned straight in the Constitution of Poland. Article 53(4) states that "the religion of a church or another spiritual union with a regulated legal situation may be the subject of school education". The presence of religion in the school besides guarantees Article 48 of the Polish Basic Law, which says that "parents have the right to rise their children according to their own beliefs". The Concordat between the Holy See and the Republic of Poland of 28 July 1993, Article 12(1) of which states that "The State guarantees that primary and secondary public schools and kindergartens, run by state and local government administrations, organise spiritual education in accordance with the will of those afraid as part of the school and pre-school curriculumIt’s okay. ”
The political parties forming the current government over the last years have repeatedly declared their commitment to the Constitution of Poland and their willingness to defend it. Unfortunately, the same politicians at the same time equally frequently announced that certain rights of Catholics would be restricted from the Polish Constitution, announcing the removal of spiritual lessons from public schools. specified statements affect not only the rights of believers, but are besides a manifestation of arrogance for the rights of parents who, in accordance with the Polish Constitution, have the right to rise children in accordance with their own beliefs. Therefore, we fear that the current government is guided by the belief that it is an omnipotent state, not parents should decide about the education of Polish children.
Therefore, we call on the head of the Ministry of National Education to stand for the freedom and rights of people who believe in the Polish school system.
Our large concern is the thought of removing the evaluation from the lessons of religion from the school's certificates and not including the grade from this subject in the advanced school. This would be contrary to the law, as confirmed by the Constitutional Court in its judgement of 20 April 1993, noting that the placing of spiritual assessments on the school certificate is straight due to the consequences of the organisation of spiritual teaching by public schools. We besides argue the announcements of an immediate limitation of spiritual teaching in schools from 2 hours a week to 1 and the organization of spiritual lessons only at the first or last hr of schooling. We believe that specified actions are intended to hinder students from attending religion, and consequently to expel this subject from public schools, which will origin young Poles not only not only to learn the basic truths of Catholic faith, the cultural function of the Church and its contribution to the conflict for the identity and independency of our Homeland, as well as the spiritual roots of Europe, which John Paul II spoke about during the Gniezno legislature during the 1000th anniversary of the death of St Wojciech: "The deepest foundation of unity has brought Europe and for centuries it has been strengthened by Christianity with its Gospel, with its knowing of man and its contribution to the improvement of the past of peoples and nations."
We are outraged at the content of the draft regulation prepared by the Ministry of National Education on the conditions and manner of organising religion in public schools. According to the solutions proposed in the document, educational institutions will be able to combine pupils into inter-class groups, covering students at different levels of education. This would clearly affect the safety of younger students and disturb their psycho-emotional development, the programming basis at a given level of teaching could not be implemented in any way, and the more ambitious students would fall victim to clear discrimination, incapable to survey spiritual cognition to a satisfactory extent. In addition, there is simply a hazard that the authorities who are reluctant to attend the school to oversee the educational establishments or school principals could lead to spiritual lessons for 1 group of students in the late afternoon separated from their framework agenda and in collision with extra-school activities.
By not agreeing with this perspective, we powerfully protest the regulations of the Ministry of National Education and call for withdrawal from these discriminatory measures and call for genuine social dialog to scope consensus on raising children to higher values within religion and school ethics. At the same time, we would like to remind that the authorities of the Republic of Poland are obliged to comply with the applicable law, especially the Constitution of Poland, which guarantees the Poles spiritual freedom and the right to rise children in accordance with their own values and their religion.
The petition can be signed here: https://religionremainsschool.pl/
