Restricting Religious Worship During the COVID-19 Epidemic in Poland. Legal Dimension

Abstract

The functioning of religious communities in the public space during the period of increased disease related to the COVID-19 pandemic raises a number of socially important questions. On the one hand, these are questions about the attitude of religious communities in the fight against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and whether during this period of increased trial for entire societies, churches and religious associations in Poland cooperate with countries to achieve the common good? On the other hand, there are questions about the extent to which state authorities are entitled to impose a specific behavior on religious communities and are there limits to state interference in the autonomy of religious communities in the time of the coronavirus pandemic? The above questions fit into the issue of the broadly understood relationship between the state and churches and other religious associations and touch upon an aspect of these relationships which – due to the unprecedented nature and scale of the pandemic itself – has not yet been the subject of much attention of modern science. The article is an attempt to answer these questions.