Poland: the Church Settles Its Accounts
By Marek Lehnert
The presentation of a report on Church finances is just days away but the Country has not yet unravelled the nub of the financing issue Even though for fourteen years Poland has had an agreement that is almost identical to the one Italy had in 1984, it has not yet unravelled the issue of funding for the Catholic Church operating on the Country. Until yesterday, both State and Church utilized legal tools dating back to the People's Republic whose memory would be best forgotten. Firstly the Ecclesiastical Fund (Fundusz kościelny) formed in 1950, in theory to help the so-called patriot-priests, but in practice to finance the opposition to the Church and its employees, guilty of being faithful to the Pope and the Vatican. The high clerics themselves have highlighted this when solicited by the notice given by the second government led by Tusk, according to which it's time to review the relations between State and Church. In his keynote speech to the Sejm (lower house) on the last 18 November, the Prime Minister announced his intention to include priests in the national pension scheme. It would therefore be safe to presume that the ecclesiastical fund will be fully dismantled. If necessary, said Tusk "we are ready to change the agreement." As a first reaction to the news, the Church representatives, aside from requesting to have a say in the proposed changes, admitted to the necessity of creating a "new, global model to fund the Church." The current fund was deemed "anachronistic" and its balance for years has reportedly been 'difficult to calculate'. Lately, According to a Catholic lawyer of great renown, the fund recently had 90 millions zloty (1€ = 4 zloty), when it should have had 200 million. "The state needs to give money to the Church, not the other way round," many say. There is no need to review the agreement, it should simply be put into practice. A few days ago, in Warsaw, the press agency of Polish bishops KAI (Katolicka Agencja Informacyjna), presented the first report on Church finances in Poland. A document which was necessarily drafted in haste, under the pressure of recent events. Looking at it one can see that in Poland the Church has survived thanks to the 'taca' (collection money). In other words Catholic followers have covered 80% of all expenses of the ecclesiastical institutions at all levels, from parishes to the Polish Episcopal Conference. In the Church's financial chain in Poland the fundamental link are the parishes, which after covering their expenses, transfer to the dioceses 15-20% of their income. This varies between 30,000 and 300-400,000 zloty, depending on parish size and region. 30% of followers regularly give collection money on Sundays. Donations range between 0.50 and 1.20 złoty per person. Income figures include christening (between 25 and 250 zloty), wedding and funeral donations that as a rule should belong only to the priest. The report has revealed for the first time that priests earn between 800 to 5500 zloty per month, with an average ranging between 1,500 and 2,500 zloty, which is below the national average (3682 zloty). That money, as highlighted in the report, is not tax free. The state gives the Church more or less half a billion zloty a year (first and foremost to its social activities, but also to building restoration projects), while the Church pays out several billions in educational, charitable and cultural activities. The Polish branch of Caritas alone spends something like 482 millions zloty a year. While waiting for the government to comment on the report, the idea suddenly came about of halving the number of military chaplains, who amount to less than 150. The first military bishop in the country who is now Archbishop of Gdansk, Leszek Slawoj Glodz spoke straight away of a ' Zapater-ism' in Polish key. The settling of accounts between the Polish State and the Church has only just begun.
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