The meeting of the Council of Diocesan Bishops of the Polish Bishops' Conference took place at Jasna Gora

https://episkopat.pl/doc/217173.Na-Jasnej-Gorze-odbylo-sie-spotkanie-Rady-Biskupow-Diecezjalnych

"The Polish Bishops‘ Conference devoted a lot of space, in its first part of the meeting, to the topic of religious education” – reported Bishop Wojciech Osial, chairman of the Commission of the Polish Bishops' Conference for Catholic Education. "As the Church, as bishops, we want to talk, we want to dialogue, we want to look for an agreement, and we ask, and we always stand by this position, that the existing law is respected” – he admitted. "We are open to talk, open to dialogue, but always with respect for the law” – he added.

Bishop Osial stressed that religious education is not only the transmission of content strictly related to faith, "but it is also a great educational work. The religious content helps to educate people to values, to shape characters, consciences, personalities, to overcome various difficulties”.

The chairman of the Commission for Catholic Education thanked parents who send their children to religious education. He also thanked parents "for wanting to bring up their children in their faith”. "I thank the pupils who attend religious classes. I thank you, dear pupils, for this witness of faith that you give. I thank the teachers of religious education for their work, sometimes difficult but much needed. We, the bishops, are with you dear teachers of religious education” – he pointed out.

Bishop Osial recalled that on 8 September, the 14th Week of Education will begin under the motto: "Let's educate together”. Referring to this theme, the hierarch encouraged to "educate together – as a family, as a school, and as the Church”.

"The Bishops are pleased that the petition they submitted to the First President of the Supreme Court has taken further formal course. This is because the forwarding of the petition by the First President to the Constitutional Tribunal is a necessary stage so that our demands to suspend the change proposed by the First Minister can actually become a reality” – said the Spokesman of the Polish Bishops' Conference, Fr Leszek Gęsiak SJ, referring after the deliberations to press reports that the First President of the Supreme Court had contested the Regulation of the Minister of Education of 26 July this year.

The Spokesman of the Polish Episcopate acknowledged that during the meeting the Council of Diocesan Bishops of the Polish Bishops' Conference, bishops stressed that the Regulation of the Minister of Education "is harmful and discriminatory to children and young people” and that "in addition to the fact that it is contrary to the law in force, as mentioned in the submitted petition, it can also be a source of very serious consequences related to the upbringing of young people, as well as the far-reaching vision that any parent may have of wanting to bring up their child according to a certain system of values, in this case Christian values”.

The day before, on 26 August, the bishops traditionally took part in the celebration of the Solemnity of Our Lady of Czestochowa. The Eucharist at the Jasna Gora summit was presided over by Archbishop Wojciech Polak, Primate of Poland, who emphasised in his homily the importance and value of religious instruction in schools. More