The city famed for the Solidarity movement--which led to Poland's democracy in the 1980s--is now the place where minority Christian churches and religious groups are under investigation by regional police.
The city famed for the Solidarity movement—which led to Poland’s democracy in the 1980s—is now the place where minority Christian churches and religious groups are under investigation by regional police.
In an official directive signed by Witold Murczkiewicz, chief of the Department of Prevention for the Gdansk police, local police offices in the Pomerania Province are instructed to create files and collect information on “destructive sects and new religious movements.”
The official document was recently disclosed by a “Fakty i Mity” (Facts and Myths) weekly magazine and lists several Christian churches and denominations, among them Jehovah’s Witnesses, Baptists, Pentecostals, Adventists and other religious organizations. The list is a mix of the legally recognized, registered and respected minority Christian denominations, together with groups designated as therapeutic and non-conventional medicine groups, as well as clairvoyants and fortunetellers.
The instruction states that the monitoring activities of the police are to be made in cooperation with organizations and institutions involved in similar activities. The magazine comments that such issues would be of interest to the local [Roman Catholic] parish priests and bishops, as well as to the Dominican Center for Information on New Religious Movements.
The well-established churches in Poland are not taking the development without a strong reaction, demanding explanation and termination of such activities. Seventh-day Adventists, among others, reacted by sending an official and open letter of protest on April 9, addressed to Krzysztof Janik, Minister of Interior and Administration, requesting that an explanation be given as to the extent of the investigation—whether it is an isolated or wider activity, and what is the role of the country’s General Police Headquarters in the development.
The document further asks whether the Gdansk police are also planning to establish files for a “Catholic religious group,” and requests the police action in Gdansk and the Pomerania Province be terminated at once.
Referring to the development as “scandalous,” Andrzej Sicinski, secretary of the Adventist Church in Poland, expressed a concern that the Gdansk affair may be regarded as an “Orwellian reality in which there exist equals and more than equals.” The protest refers to the notion of establishing “files,” as being reminiscent of the Stalinist era. According to the instruction, the files are to include a list of the members and leaders, social structure, age and gender, as well as an analysis whether a given religious group is acting within the principles of social interaction.
Adventists ask “how is this relating to the principle of equality of churches and confessional organizations” before the Polish law and is enshrined in the country’s constitution. The letter, signed by Sicinski, further asks if the acts of the Polish parliament which has passed legislation establishing church-state relationship for many individual Protestant denominations, no longer guarantee religious freedom for these officially registered religious bodies. The letter also argues that each denomination, before being granted an official state recognition, undergo a detailed review of their activities and governance.
The protest letter also states that religious groups which are not yet legally recognized should not be subjected to investigation by the police, but their evaluation should be done by representative institutions designated by the state for such activities. “The sphere of religious practice is a sphere of freedom of each citizen,” the Adventist document states.
Adventist News Network learned on May 6 that the Adventist church received a letter from the Ministry of Interior and Administration indicating that the issue is being referred to the General Police Headquarters in Warsaw, with a request that the ministry receive their response.
Copies of the protest letter were sent to institutions dealing with human rights and religious issues, as well as a selected group of senators and members of Sejm [parliament]. One of the MPs, Boguslaw Wantor, proposed that should the response from the authorities not be satisfactory, he would intervene in this issue.