Week of Aug. 31, 2023
Attendance at catechism classes in Poland declines
Attendance at religion classes in Poland’s public schools has dropped by 3.3% to 82% in the 2021-2022 school year. Some parents complain that schools schedule catechism lessons as the first class of the day, requiring pupils to go to school an hour earlier, or as the day’s last class, when students are tired and look forward to going home for dinner. Polish school children and teens who do not attend catechism class are required to sign up for secular ethics. The highest catechism attendance is in SE Poland’s Podkarpackie region, encompassing the Dioceses of Tarnów (97%), Przemyśl (97%) and Rzeszów (96%). The lowest is in SW Poland’s Wrocław Archdiocese and Warsaw (66%).
Sejm overwhelmingly adopts 14th social-security payout
The Sejm, the main lawmaking chamber of Poland’s parliament, has adopted a measure introducing a 14th social-security payout during the year. A 13th payout has already been in force for some time. Although Donald Tusk’s liberal opposition party calls the government’s new welfare benefits “vote-getting gimmicks,” its MPs nevertheless overwhelmingly supported it so as not to alienate the some 10 million senior-citizen voters in this election year. Under the conservative Law and Justice government, the average monthly social-security payout now comes to 3,483 zł ($871), up from 2,903 zł ($726) a year earlier.
20,000 young Poles see Pope at Portugal’s World Youth Day
Some 20,000 young Polish Catholics traveled to Lisbon, Portugal to take part in World Youth Day with Pope Francis, attended by 1.5 million youths from around the globe. During the six-day event, they took part in liturgies, prayer vigils and religious retreats, sang, danced, made new like-minded friends and displayed their unrestrained youthful exuberance at embracing Christ. The Holy Father urged them to beware of “the illusions of the virtual world” where algorithms used their names for market research but could never understand a person's uniqueness. He said, “God is not a search engine that gives simple, straightforward answers.” He also said there was room in the Church for everyone, including those who stumble and err. Created in 1985 by the Polish Pontiff, now St. John Paul II, the event is held in a different city every three years. The next is due to take place in Seoul, S. Korea.
Attendance at religion classes in Poland’s public schools has dropped by 3.3% to 82% in the 2021-2022 school year. Some parents complain that schools schedule catechism lessons as the first class of the day, requiring pupils to go to school an hour earlier, or as the day’s last class, when students are tired and look forward to going home for dinner. Polish school children and teens who do not attend catechism class are required to sign up for secular ethics. The highest catechism attendance is in SE Poland’s Podkarpackie region, encompassing the Dioceses of Tarnów (97%), Przemyśl (97%) and Rzeszów (96%). The lowest is in SW Poland’s Wrocław Archdiocese and Warsaw (66%).
Sejm overwhelmingly adopts 14th social-security payout
The Sejm, the main lawmaking chamber of Poland’s parliament, has adopted a measure introducing a 14th social-security payout during the year. A 13th payout has already been in force for some time. Although Donald Tusk’s liberal opposition party calls the government’s new welfare benefits “vote-getting gimmicks,” its MPs nevertheless overwhelmingly supported it so as not to alienate the some 10 million senior-citizen voters in this election year. Under the conservative Law and Justice government, the average monthly social-security payout now comes to 3,483 zł ($871), up from 2,903 zł ($726) a year earlier.
20,000 young Poles see Pope at Portugal’s World Youth Day
Some 20,000 young Polish Catholics traveled to Lisbon, Portugal to take part in World Youth Day with Pope Francis, attended by 1.5 million youths from around the globe. During the six-day event, they took part in liturgies, prayer vigils and religious retreats, sang, danced, made new like-minded friends and displayed their unrestrained youthful exuberance at embracing Christ. The Holy Father urged them to beware of “the illusions of the virtual world” where algorithms used their names for market research but could never understand a person's uniqueness. He said, “God is not a search engine that gives simple, straightforward answers.” He also said there was room in the Church for everyone, including those who stumble and err. Created in 1985 by the Polish Pontiff, now St. John Paul II, the event is held in a different city every three years. The next is due to take place in Seoul, S. Korea.