Polish women reject the Catholic Church’s hold on their country
… Challenging the church’s hold on Poland
The
protesters aren’t just calling for the expansion of women’s as well as
LGBTQ rights. They’re also demanding a secular state in a direct
challenge to the power the church has had over Poland since it
transitioned to democracy in 1989.
The church’s teachings have had
an impact on beliefs about conception, contraception and abortion that
have made their way into Polish law, as have Catholic views on in vitro
fertilization and euthanasia. Its doctrines also influence Polish
understanding of family and the rights of sexual minorities as well as
access to divorce.
Catholic religious instruction is provided in
public schools and funded by the state. The church also influences
public conversations and attitudes by operating 120 publishing houses
that publish 300 newspapers and other periodicals, and by running the
densest radio network in Europe.
That network comprises 38
regional radio stations, one national station, and boasts 117
transmission towers. For the sake of comparison, the next biggest
network, a private operation, has 10.
While this all suggests
Polish society holds conservative views, the mass protests signal that
public attitudes are actually more liberal than those of the major
political parties that have long backed the conservative compromise. …