Polandʼs bishops have appealed for de-escalation and prayer amid a deepening standoff over the countryʼs Constitutional Tribunal, warning that the dispute is driving a “deep crisis of the state”. Source: EWTN News.
“It is not the role of the Church to adjudicate the causes of this dispute or the responsibility for the lack of its resolution,” the Presidium of the Polish Bishops Conference, headed by Gdańsk Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda, said in a statement on Friday.
The Polish prelates called on politicians to calm the conflict and asked for “the initiation of constructive dialogue and the peaceful resolution of all difficulties.”
The bishops appealed to the faithful to pray “for light and wisdom for the rulers and all those responsible for public life.”
Archbishop Wojciech Polak of Gniezno urged all sides of the political dispute to “seek a common solution” through talks. The heads of Polandʼs religious orders called for dialogue “on the basis of respect for the Constitution of the Republic of Poland and the applicable legal order.”
The tribunal decides whether Polish laws are constitutional. Who gets to sit on it has been contested since 2015.
This term the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, elected eight judges. President Karol Nawrocki, who is backed by the opposition Law and Justice party, swore in three. The other five took their oath in parliament instead, and Tribunal President Bogdan Święczkowski barred them from ruling.
On October 30, one of the five, judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, struck back. She suspended Mr Święczkowski and his deputy, Bartłomiej Sochański, for one month. The courtʼs official account on X replied that she “is not a judge of the Constitutional Tribunal”.
Many legal experts doubt she had the power to issue the order, though some say it can be justified as a case of “higher constitutional necessity.”
On his way to Senegal, Mr Nawrocki turned his plane around and returned to Warsaw in the early hours of Friday. A statement in his name called the events “a forcible takeover of a constitutional body”. Hundreds of people gathered outside.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk was just as blunt in a televised address: “In certain matters, there can be no compromise.”
Others want to start over. Szymon Hołownia, whose Poland 2050 party sits in Mr Tuskʼs coalition, has backed a “constitutional reset” – a move that would replace the entire bench. This idea has long been pushed by the opposition right-wing Confederation and left-wing Together parties.
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Polish bishops appeal for dialogue as constitutional court standoff deepens (EWTN News)
