Religious policy in Poland towards catechetical teaching in the years 1961-2001

Abstract

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights passed by the United Nations Organization in 1948 proclaims man’s rights to liberties of thought, conscience and religion. The Declaration emphasizes that this right also includes the freedom to profess one’s religion or faith, individually or in a community, publicly or privately, through teaching, practising, worship or observance of customs. A clear emphasis of man’s right to get to know the principles of faith (both in the teaching of Church and the statements of the United Nations Organization) was influenced by the experiences of the Church in totalitarian system in recent decades, and especially in the system based on Marxist ideology. It was the situation in which the Church remained in Poland since World War II till 1989, constituting a part of the social organism that was forced to live in co-existence with the communist system. Hence, it was difficult to expect a compromise or – even more – a favourable attitude on the part of the state authorities as far as catechetical teaching of that period was concerned. In the times of PRL, the law, administration acts and regulations served as means to strengthen the communist rule and subordinate all spheres of social and state life to it. The legal system did not give any guarantees of respecting the rights of a human person and, what is more, it limited the age-old rights of the Church, including the right to teach religion. The situation underwent a decisive change only after 1989 as a result of the political transformation, when the totalitarian communist system was replaced by a democratic one. The present article covers the years 1961-2001, which is from the moment when religious instruction was removed from school till the promulgation of the Polish catechetical directory.