The bishops of Poland concluded their 406th Plenary Assembly on Saturday, October 24 in Zakopane with an explicit rejection of the two abortion reforms approved on October 20 by the Sejm, the lower house of Parliament, and with the election of historian Piotr Franaszek as president of the commission of independent experts that must investigate sexual abuse of minors in the Polish Church. In the final communiqué, the bishops oppose the changes that weaken the protection of unborn children and “appeal for respect for the life of every child, including the unborn, who is a subject of rights”, according to the translation by this editorial team.
The Sejm approved that Tuesday, by 217 votes to 213 with three abstentions, a reform of the Penal Code that removes the penalty of up to three years in prison for performing an abortion with the woman’s consent outside the legal exceptions and eliminates criminal liability for anyone who assists or induces an abortion. That same day it approved, by 233 votes to 203, a bill to reverse the Constitutional Court ruling of October 22, 2020, which declared unconstitutional abortion due to severe and irreversible fetal malformation. Both texts must pass through the Senate and require the signature of President Karol Nawrocki, who has indicated he will veto them, and the governing coalition does not have the three-fifths majority needed to override the veto, according to EWTN News. Today abortion is only legal in Poland when the pregnancy endangers the life or health of the woman or results from a crime.
The president of the Episcopal Conference, Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda, defended that “the care of life, especially of defenseless unborn children, is a duty of conscience” and that the bishops express their opposition to a policy “that does not build, but destroys,” according to words reported by the portal Goniec. He also maintained, according to Deon, that every person has their dignity and their right to life and that the vote may weaken society’s sense of the value of life. The communiqué adds that merely processing these reforms favors social acceptance of abortion.
The other decision of the assembly has a long history. The bishops agreed in March 2023 to create an independent commission to study sexual abuse of minors, but its launch has been delayed because the ministries raised objections to the statute and requested changes, according to the German agency KNA, reported by katholisch.de. In Zakopane, the Episcopal Conference approved the revised statute, which returns to the Ministry of the Interior so the commission can obtain legal personality, and elected Franaszek, 71, professor emeritus of History at the Jagiellonian University of Kraków, a layman and Benedictine oblate, as president after consulting with the superiors of the male and female orders. “We are at the beginning”, the new president acknowledged, explaining that the commission will first invite the experts and then establish its method and working rules. The other members are not known and there is no date for the start of the work.
The appointment has not convinced everyone. Franaszek was a councilor in Kraków for Law and Justice between 2006 and 2010 and a member of the College of the Institute of National Remembrance, and abuse victim Robert Fidura said, according to KNA, that he had never heard him say anything about abuse in the Church and that he hopes he will set aside his political ties. Bishop Sławomir Oder, on the other hand, spoke of a milestone on the path toward the beginning of the work.
The assembly also dealt with the family. After the Vatican meeting on Amoris laetitia, attended by the presidents of the episcopal conferences, the bishops recalled that marriage and the family are a path of happiness and holiness and announced special attention to young married couples, families in crisis, and people in non-sacramental unions, according to the summary of the communiqué published by Deon. They also sent a letter to Leo XIV wishing him a speedy recovery after his operation.
The Polish bishops stand up to the decriminalization of abortion while, three and a half years after deciding on it, they are still unable to launch their commission on abuse.
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