Communiqué of the President of the Polish Bishops' Conference concerning the implementation of standards of the protection of minors in the Church in Poland

Communiqué
of the President of the Polish Bishops' Conference 
Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda SAC
concerning the implementation of standards of the protection of minors
in the Church in Poland

In July 2023, an amendment to the Family and Guardianship Code and other laws on the protection of children, the so-called "Act of Kamilek", was adopted. The result of this law is, among other things, the National Plan for the Prevention of Offences against Sexual Liberty and Vice to the Detriment of Minors and the various measures resulting from it, which are intended to take care of the welfare and safety of children in a structured and multidimensional manner. One of these is the obligation to introduce protection standards for all establishments where children are or may be present. This applies to establishments providing education, care, religion, art, medicine, sport, tourism, etc. The standards are a set of principles that place child protection at the centre of each institution's activities and values, and thus help to create a safe, violence-free and child-friendly environment.

The Church has embraced this law with great openness. This is because it approaches the topic of child protection in a broad and holistic way, as a community-wide programme that applies to all spaces where children are present and to those who work with them. The mentioned concern is in line with the spirit of the Gospel, in which Jesus repeatedly said that the welfare of the least and vulnerable must be considered first.

As a community of the Church in which children gather, we wish to take up this challenge and to implement the legally binding standards in our parishes, ongoing works and Church institutions. The standards of protection are therefore already adopted and are gradually being implemented. These regulations define the way in which pastoral work is understood and planned, the selection and training of staff, as well as clearly setting out a code of appropriate behaviour, procedures for intervening, the selection of those responsible for the operation of the standards, in the spirit of caring for those who have been harmed, and all the other procedures required.

We have also undertaken a series of training sessions involving both clergy and lay people serving in parishes and those responsible for various Church units. Educational and preventive activities are also planned in order to disseminate knowledge on child protection and its proper application.

At this point, I would like to express my sincere thanks to all those involved in both the preparation of the standards themselves and the necessary training.

These standards, as required by the Act, will be made public in each Church unit. We encourage everyone to familiarise with them in order to deepen our community awareness of the protection of minors, which will be helpful in building a world that is safe for children.

The introduction of standards for the protection of minors in our parishes, institutions and works run by the Church is not only the fulfilment of a legal obligation, but is also a positive and clear message that evangelical values are being put into practice in the daily pastoral ministry of the Church. In practice, they mean a sensitive service and concern for the welfare of every human being, especially children and the vulnerable. By implementing these standards, the Church joins society in creating environments that are safe and free from all forms of violence.

+ Tadeusz Wojda SAC
Archbishop Metropolitan of Gdansk
President of the Polish Bishops' Conference

Warsaw, 9 August 2024