The Catholic Church received nearly 150,000 from the state. hectares – 82 thousand ha pursuant to art. 70a of the Act on the State relationship to the Catholic Church and 65.5 thousand. ha from the property committee – told PAP prof. UAM dr hab. Maksymilian Stanulewicz. He noted that the functioning of art. 70a, which Poland 2050 wants to change, led to abuse.
Poland 2050 has submitted a bill in the Sejm, which removes Art. 70a of the Act on the State's relationship to the Catholic Church in Poland, enabling free transfer to the Church of lands taken by the authorities of the Polish People's Republic.
– pursuant to art. 70a of the Act on the state's relationship to the Catholic Church in Poland, which enabled free transfer of land to the legal persons of the Catholic Church operating in the Western and Northern Territories after May 8, 1945, in 1992-2024 the church was transferred to 82,000 hectares, and 8,000 hectares received other religious associations – he told PAP prof. UAM dr hab. Maksymilian Stanulewicz.
He pointed out that “in addition, the Property Commission during 23 years of functioning transferred to the Church legal persons 65.5 thousand ha of land and PLN 143 million 534 thousand compensation, i.e. about 60 percent of the property taken by the communists.” – Some even talk about PLN 750 million and buildings of about PLN 5 billion – he added.
Thus – as noted by prof. Stanulewicz – “a Catholic Church received a total of nearly 150,000 hectares, and therefore exactly as much as he lost as a result of the communist authorities.”
The expert reminded that at the time of the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Catholic Church in Poland was the largest landowner in the country.
– It is estimated that the so -called Rolna, i.e. pastures, forests, wasteland, unlike arable land, i.e. not for cultivation for peasants, was about 440-450 thousand. hectares. Of this, 2/3 were areas occupied by the USSR, while 1/3 of the property was located in the so -called Today's central Poland, and then it was called western Poland – said prof. UAM.
He admitted that “although after 1945 as a result of the shift of borders, the Catholic Church lost its property in the area occupied by the Soviets, he still had, depending on estimates from 120 to 150,000 hectares in the Lublin region and central Poland.”
– In addition, with the consent of the PRL authorities, he occupied real estate after former German church law on the so -called Recovered Territories, which from the state's point of view was a kind of “colonization of former German lands”, i.e. the northwestern areas of the country, Upper and Lower Silesia and the Lubusz Land. Despite this, until the 1970s, the power of the Church over property in the Regained Territories, i.e. tens of thousands of hectares and hundreds of buildings, was not officially found – said the expert.
He pointed out that by 1989 we were dealing with legal dualism.
– On the one hand, at the turn of the 1940s and 1950s, for political reasons, the communist authorities gradually occupied church real estate in central and eastern Poland, and leaving assets in western Poland due to, as it was claimed, “to the survival of the Polish element” – said prof. Stanulewicz.
He explained that when taking over the church property, the communist authorities wanted to force the Catholic Church to obey.
– The very process of taking over goods was not unusual in Europe, where in many modern countries the secularization of church goods and their nationalization took place, although this was done in accordance with the law for damages – he added.
– In February 1950, the authorities proposed to the Church a state-set arrangement assuming the acceptance of the existence of communist authorities in Poland together with the objectives of the development of the socialist state. In connection with the fluctuations of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, the Church was argued by presenting the bill on the takeover of the property of the dead hand, a guarantee of priests to have farms and the creation of a church fund. In this way, he was de facto deprived of property in Poland, like Czechoslovakia. Cardinal Wyszyński, having no choice, accepted the arrangement, which almost led Pope Pius XII to the stroke. As a consequence of this decision, the state added an annex to the Act, which provided that one-third of the property, i.e. 40-50 thousand. hectares will remain in the hands of the church – said the expert.
The Act of 1950 assumed an area norm – that is, if the farm of the priests exceeded 100 or 50 hectares, then only the surplus of over 100 or 50 hectares was to be taken over. In practice, however, the authorities occupied entire farms together with livestock, agricultural machinery, buildings, and therefore everything that was used to conduct agricultural activities.
The expert admitted that a slightly different legal situation was in the Western Territories, i.e. Recovered.
– Until 1971, the Vatican did not recognize the Polish Church Administration in Poniemia and treated Polish bishops only as apostolic administrators (in Wrocław, Gdańsk, Gorzów Wielkopolski, Opole and Olsztyn). Only Pope Paul VI in 1972, released the bull “Episcoporum Poloniae Coetus”, which established a new, temporary administrative division of the Catholic Church in the Regained Territories. It confirmed the belonging of the diocese to the Polish church administration, thus normalizing legal relations from the Polish People's Republic and ultimately determining the church borders of the diocese within the new state limits. In gratitude, Edward Gierek issued a government ordinance, under which all the property of the Catholic Church in these areas has gone to his property. It can therefore be said that Gierek thus became the greatest donor of the church in Poland since the time of Władysław Jagiełło – assessed prof. Stanulewicz.
According to estimates drawn up in the 1990s, pursuant to the Act of 1950, from the Catholic Church from 160 to 180,000 hectares was taken over.
Until 1989, money from the church fund went to the activities of Department IV of the Ministry of the Interior, whose only tasks were the surveillance of the Church and its fighting in the country and abroad. However, retirement and health benefits were paid only to clergy who agreed to cooperate with the authorities. This means that until 1989 clergy in Poland (over 20,000 people) did not have social and health insurance, and therefore they had no right to free treatment.
As part of the remuneration process to the Church and appreciating its historical and social merits in 1991, he obtained the right to acquire lands free of charge and indefinitely. Article 70a of the Act on the State relationship to the Catholic Church in Poland enables free transfer of land to legal persons of the Catholic Church, which operated in the Western and Northern Territories after May 8, 1945.
– In practice, this meant that the voivodship authorities in consultation with the National Agricultural Support Center, if they considered it appropriate – could transfer the land to the churches free of charge from agricultural ownership of the Treasury – said prof. Stanulewicz.
Prof. Stanulewicz pointed out that “pursuant to Article 70a, a person of church law, e.g. parishes may repeatedly submit applications for land, because the voivode makes a decision looking at what area the Applicant has at a given moment.” – This means that parishes and dioceses can sell the acquired land, and if they go below 15 ha (in the case of parish) or 50 ha (diocese) may again conclude what had a place in the past – he noted.
Currently, the church fund is used by all religious associations operating in Poland, including those that did not operate in our country in 1950 and did not lose any properties. 95 percent The expenditure of the church fund is currently social security contributions. The draft budget for 2025 guarantees expenses for a church fund in the amount of 275 million 710 thousand. zloty.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced changes in 2024 regarding the church fund. An inter-ministerial team of church fund was established, headed by Deputy Prime Minister, head of the Ministry of National Defense Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz. He led, among others analysis of the current financing of church institutions from the state budget.
Magdalena Gronek (PAP)
MGW/ Jann/ LM/
