‘ZUS for the clergy’
On Monday, Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk, the head of the MRPiPS, announced the submission of an application for the inclusion of a bill eliminating the Church Fund in the list of legislative works of the government.
On Wednesday, however, Dziemianowicz-Bąk, MP of the Left, presented the assumptions of the project, which was prepared by the MPPiPS in cooperation with the Left parliamentarians. The task concerns the liquidation of the Church Fund and provides that clergymen will pay 50% of social safety contributions and the second half will be borne by the employing churches. She stressed that the Fund could not play the function of “ZUS for the clergy” and should be liquidated.
The Minister besides informed that the task assumes the co-financing of contributions to the pensions and pensions of the clergy by themselves and by the Churches, treated as employers.
Costs in billions
Every year, the Church Fund absorbs quite a few money. As the Left candidate for president Magdalena Biejat points out:
The liquidation of the ecclesiastical fund was promised by the coalition, promised by the parties forming part of the current government and it is advanced time to fulfil this promise. On Monday, together with Marshal Czarzasty and MP Żukowska, we presented shocking data which show that in addition to the church fund, that for 8 years the regulation of the Law and Justice came from circumstantial ministries to the Church almost PLN 10 billion.
Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk notes in turn that in 2025 more than PLN 250 million were allocated to the Kościelny Fund, of which 95% of this amount will be absorbed in social safety contributions of clergymen.
Simon Hołownia besides commented on the liquidation of the fund. During his visit to Białystok, the 3rd Way candidate stated:
The Church Fund should yet be abolished and replaced by a taxation write-off or an increase in the donation limit.
Kaczyński: "Antireligious Obsession"
Jarosław Kaczyński was besides asked about the task during his press conference.
Everyone has the right to consider what they want – individual may think that there should not be a Church Fund, but these are demands of an anti-religious obsession characteristic of today's left— He said. – No reasonable man should care about that, both erstwhile he is simply a believer and erstwhile he is not.
Kaczyński pointed out that the Catholic Church is an integral part of social life, and the liquidation of the Church Fund could negatively affect its functioning. According to him, the amount of the fund alone represents only an unnoticeable amount in the state budget. The president of PiS besides stressed that the liquidation of the fund would straight affect clergymen, including their pensions.
The Church Fund is 75 years old
The Church Fund was created under the Law of 20 March 1950 as compensation for churches and spiritual unions for the state's taken over land property. These properties were to produce a mass of property from which the income would be shared between the Churches in proportion to the size of the lost lands.
Currently 95% of the Fund's expenses are social contributions to clergy. It is utilized by all legal spiritual unions in Poland, including those that did not work in 1950 and did not lose any real estate.
