Money from the state for the Church. NIK submitted a report to the Sejm

The president of the Supreme Audit Office transferred to the Sejm the results of financial flow control between the state and the Catholic Church. – They are currently analyzed – said the Marshal of the Chamber Szymon Hołownia. In his opinion, it is a milestone in these discussions on this subject, which has been taking place in Poland for several decades.

In March 2024, the Sejm Marshal ordered the Supreme Audit Office to carry out a check of financing of churches and other religious associations from public funds, with particular emphasis on financing of the Catholic Church in the period from November 12, 2019 to November 12, 2023.

On Tuesday at a conference in Bialystok, Szymon Hołownia announced that the president of the Supreme Audit Office Marian Banaś Today he transferred the results of the inspection to the Sejm. – They are currently analyzed and and Thursday before noon I will invite you to the Sejm to present the results of this control – he said.

According to information on the Sejm website, the Speaker of the Sejm applied, among others for checking the funds spent as part of the educational subsidy for financing religion education and for the maintenance and remuneration of chaplains employed in services, inspections and guards, as well as expenses from the church fund. The conclusion also concerned the concessions, exemptions and preferences of and customs applied to churches and other religious associations.

“Milow Stone” report

In his opinion, the results of this control will be the beginning of a serious discussion about the chapter of the church from the state. “We'll see how money flows from you to church and to the institution of the Church,” he added.

The Marshal of the Sejm reminded that he ordered the NIK to carry out the “first, review, systemic financial flow control between the state and the Catholic Church.”

Hołownia estimated that the Supreme Audit Office took the task seriously. – This is a review report, I am absolutely convinced – a milestone in all these discussions, which we have been fighting in Poland for 20 or 30 years – said Hołownia.

– I really have a bow of listening in every election campaign: you have to say a concordat. What have you done to organize this situation? Everyone talks, nobody does anything. You have to get to work, because the church and state relations must be ordered – convinced the presidential candidate. He assessed that when these relationships were ordered, “there will be more peace, less tension, less pressure and less aggression in Poland.”

Hołownia for the liquidation of the church fund

The marshal reminded that he was a supporter of the liquidation of the church fund. At the same time, he assessed that the Catholic Church would “manage if we introduce a kind of tax write -off or raising the relief limit, but in the work on the liquidation of the Fund one should take care of smaller churches and national or religious minorities.”

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