Poland’s newly nominated cardinal has warned against attempts to “instrumentalise” the Catholic Church in the campaign for late autumn parliamentary elections, and criticised the leader of the governing Law and Justice party for using Church events for “political speeches”.
“The Church should be developing evangelical methods, not political tools – preaching the word, celebrating the sacraments and building a community on works of love,” said Archbishop Grzegorz Rys of Lodz, who will be made a cardinal with 20 others on 30 September.
“Some consistency is needed here. If we ask politicians not to draw us into a political struggle, we shouldn’t then invite them to express political views at religious ceremonies. There's no place for this in the Church”.
The 59-year-old cardinal-elect spoke amid campaigning for Poland’s 460-seat Sejm lower house and 100-seat Senate, in which neither Law and Justice nor the liberal opposition Civic Platform are forecast to gain a decisive majority.
In an interview with the Warsaw-based Catholic Information Agency, KAI, he said his 9 July nomination had come as an “absolute shock”, but added that his key task would be to “support the Pope” while also “opening the Church to the world” in his native Poland, and ensuring an “authentic faith” based on “much deeper experiences” than “cultural norms”.
He also criticised a controversial speech promoting Law and Justice by its leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, at the Jasna Gora national sanctuary on the day his elevation was announced, which sparked angry social media reactions but was not questioned or countered by other Church leaders.
“If we've asked politicians not to involve the Church in the campaign, we shouldn't then act against this,” Archbishop Rys told KAI. “Relations between the Church and political world should be arranged as stipulated in our Concordat and Polish constitution. The intention shouldn’t be to introduce or deepen divisions in society.”
In a May statement, the Polish bishops’ Main Council pledged the Church would not “take sides” in the elections, the date of which still has to be confirmed, and urged politicians “refrain from instrumentalising the Church” and stirring “anti-clerical emotions”.
The Council also called on the media to avoid “sowing fear and hostility” and fostering “a simplified, one-sided, ideologised and sometimes partisan image of social life”, and said Catholic clergy were “called to serve unity in a divided society and to keep their distance from political parties”.
In a TV interview on Monday, Poland's Catholic primate, Archbishop Wojciech Polak of Gniezno, said the Main Council statement had “clearly defined” the Catholic Church's view that clergy should “never meddle in current politics or do anything exposing the Church to such an accusation”.
“The Church isn't a place for rallying or political agitation – it's a space for prayer and celebration of the Eucharist,” Archbishop Polak told Stacja7. “Nor can the Gospel be instrumentalised for campaign purposes. This rule applies to Jasna Gora, Lichen and Gniezno – every temple and sacred place without exception.”
Although widely accused of favouring Law and Justice, in power since 2015, the Polish Bishops Conference has clashed with the government of premier Mateusz Morawiecki on numerous issues, including its treatment of migrants and refugees, and accused it in August 2021 of violating Poland's 1993 Concordat and 1997 constitution by failing to uphold Church rights or comply with legislative and consultative requirements.
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