Poland: increase in number of faithful allowed at religious services from 13 June. Mgr. Gadecki, “professing one’s faith is a human right”

On Sunday, 13 June, more faithful will be allowed to attend religious services in Poland. As announced by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki last night, from next week, the current limit of 1 faithful per 15m2 will be lifted, and participants will be allowed to use half of the usually available seats in each church during the liturgies. The decision follows a harsh letter from the president of the Polish Bishops, Mgr. Stanisław Gądecki, who stressed the need to “change restrictions on the number of participants in religious services” in the wake of the decision to increase from 50 to 150 the number of people allowed at outdoor events. The prelate said that since “professing and practising one’s faith is an inalienable human right that affects one’s spiritual, mental and physical wellbeing”, “restrictions on such an important area of our social life should be kept to a minimum”. According to data published by the Polish Ministry of Health on Tuesday, 9 June, the number of new infections is very low. From the start of the pandemic in Poland, a country that is home to 38 million inhabitants, just over 58,000 PCR tests have been performed since only patients with COVID-19 symptoms are generally tested. From the start of the vaccination campaign, 22,340,624 doses have been administered, and 8,368,827 people are now fully vaccinated.
Anna T. Kowalewska