Ultimate victory for the Reformed Catholic Church, represented by DZP

We reported on the case of the Reformed Catholic Church (RCC) back in November 2022, when, as a result of the arguments put forward by DZP, the Voivodship Administrative Court (VAC) in Warsaw ordered a stay of enforcement of the appealed decision of the Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration finding the RCC's entry in the Register of Churches and Other Religious Associations invalid, and then overturned the decision in October 2022.

The case began in July 2020. At the time, Zbigniew Ziobro, then Attorney General, lodged an objection with the Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration against the RCC being entered in the Register of Churches and Other Religious Associations. The Church had at that time already been listed in the Register for about six months. The prosecutor based his objection on potential members of the RCC being at risk of taking action as a result of a mistake as to the actual forms of religious life, the Church's methods of operation, its aims, sources and doctrinal principles or religious rites. At issue here was primarily that the RCC allowed the marriage of homosexual couples.

Following the Attorney General's objection, on 15 September 2020 the Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration issued an administrative decision invalidating the RCC's registration, citing Article 18 of the Polish Constitution (“Marriage as a union between a man and a woman, family, motherhood and parenthood are under the protection and care of the Republic of Poland”). According to the then Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration, Mariusz Kaminski, the decision to register the Church had allegedly been taken in gross breach of the law.

Despite an application being filed for the case to be reconsidered and for the Human Rights Ombudsman, who at the time was Adam Bodnar, to join the case, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration upheld its decision finding the “rainbow church's” entry in the Register of Churches and Other Religious Associations invalid.

In January 2021, Rafał Karbowniczek, Partner, and Małgorzata Karasińska, Associate, experts in criminal law – acting pro bono on behalf of the RCC – filed an appeal with the VAC in Warsaw with an application to stay the enforcement of the appealed decision. In the appeal, our lawyers stressed that the authority had to date registered religious associations which allowed polygamy, lack of equality of spouses in marriage and divorce by a unilateral declaration of intent, despite these principles not being in line with generally applicable provisions.

As a result of the arguments put forward by DZP, the VAC in Warsaw first issued a decision staying enforcement of the appealed decision and then, on 13 October 2022, overturned the decision of the Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration, which allowed the RCC to continue to operate. 

The Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration and the Public Prosecutor at the Polish Public Prosecutor's Office decided to file last resort appeals against the October 2022 judgment, which the Human Rights Ombudsman did not agree with and applied for the appeal filed by the Public Prosecutor at the Polish Public Prosecutor's Office to be dismissed. This resulted in the last resort appeal being withdrawn by the Public Prosecutor at the Polish Prosecutor's Office on 26 February 2024.

The case came to an end on 27 June 2024, when the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) dismissed the MIAA's last resort appeal.

In the statement of reasons for its judgment, the SAC confirmed the view expressed by the VAC in Warsaw that the Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration had no grounds for finding that the decision to enter the RCC in the register of churches and other religious associations was a gross breach of the law. The SAC echoed the findings of the VAC in Warsaw that the interpretation of Article 18 of the Constitution is not obvious, and that the Minister's position setting out one of several legal views could not constitute grounds for the decision to enter the RCC in the register being found invalid.

The SAC also agreed that marriages performed in the RCC are purely religious in nature. The SAC stressed that these marriages do not have any civil law effects and that the use of nomenclature identical to the Polish Constitution or the Family and Guardianship Code does not change this, while at the same time it does not constitute a gross breach of the law.

The SAC confirmed that the RCC had met all the requirements for registration.

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, at whose request Rafał Karbowniczek and Małgorzata Karasińska undertook to represent the RCC in the dispute with the then Attorney General and the Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration, also reported on the proceedings and the outcome of the case (https://hfhr.pl/aktualnosci/reformowany-kosciol-katolicki-wygrywa-spor-o-rejestracje).