Notes on the Property Commission

1. “Poles trust in Roman Catholic church declines”, Polskie Radio, 20 January 2011.
http://www.thenews.pl/national/artykul147645_poles-trust-in-roman-catholic-church-declines.html

2. Reader comment, Forum, TVN24.pl, posted 1 March 2009. http://www.tvn24.pl/29,251,8,54123396,145210787,6211139,0,forum.html

Konfiskata i sprzedaż majątków przekazanych Kościołowi po 1989 r. naprawdę postawiłaby nasz kraj na nogi. A przecież są to majątki Polaków, wyłudzone przed wiekami pod groźbą kar piekielnych.

3. These began in 2003 with two investigative articles by Newsweek:

Marek Kęskrawiec, “Między esbekiem, urzędnikiem i plebanem”, Newsweek, 22 October 2006. http://www.newsweek.pl/artykuly/miedzy-esbekiem--urzednikiem-i-plebanem,12995,3 

4. Maciej Lipiński, “Kraków skarży Komisję Majątkową” (“Cracow complains about the property Commission”), Ekumenizm, 28 October 2008.  http://www.ekumenizm.pl/content/article/20081028105648126.htm

5. Statute on the relations between State and Catholic Church in Republic of Poland (generally known as the “Rakowski Act”) of 17 May 1989, §61-63 provides for a Property Commission/Committee (Komisja Majątkowa).

6. Aleksander Merkel quoted in “Grunt na wiarę”, Polityka, 22 January 2009. http://www.polityka.pl/tygodnikpolityka/kraj/280384,1,kosciol-przejmuje-grunty-od-panstwa

7. Marian S. Mazgaj, Church and State in Communist Poland: A History, 1944-1989, 2010, p. 127. Google reprint

8. The 1989 Rakowski Act applies to all the properties administered by the Polish Catholic Church in 1989 (Article 60). The purpose of the Property Commission is to return to the Church the remaining property nationalised in 1950 and still held by the State Treasury, and to do this through out-of-court settlements which cannot be challenged. Article 61 lists the kinds of properties subject to claims. And Article 63.1 states what the Property Commission can do:
 - Give a property back (63.1.1)
 - give an exchange property elsewhere (63.1.2)
 - offer compensation (63.1.3) In the case of the Poznan Archidiocese the compensation took the form of stocks of Polish companies owned by the State Treasury.

9. "Kościół oskarża urzędników", Dziennik, 19 September 2008. http://wiadomosci.dziennik.pl/wydarzenia/artykuly/80155,kosciol-oskarza-urzednikow.html

10. "Kraków skarży Komisję Majątkową", Ekumenizm, 28 October 2008. http://www.ekumenizm.pl/content/article/20081028105648126.htm

11. International Religious Freedom Report for 2009 http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2009/127330.htm 

12. “Kraków skarży Komisję Majątkową” (“Krakow sues Property Commission”), Ekumenizm, 28 October 2008.
http://www.ekumenizm.pl/content/article/20081028105648126.htm

13. Marek Kęskrawiec, “Między esbekiem, urzędnikiem i plebanem”, Newsweek, 22 October 2006. http://www.newsweek.pl/artykuly/miedzy-esbekiem--urzednikiem-i-plebanem,12995,3 

14. Związek Nauczycielstwa Polskiego v. Poland,  no. 42049/98, judgment of 21 September 2004, reported in ECHR 2004-IX.  Summary at: http://sim.law.uu.nl/SIM/CaseLaw/hof.nsf/1d4d0dd240bfee7ec12568490035df05/bdb8ccfba9f28377c1256f15002fefe1?OpenDocument 

15. “Poland’s Property Commission on Trial for Deals that Handed Millions to Catholic Church”, Krakow Post, 9 March 2013. http://www.krakowpost.com/article/6386

16. Magda Hartman, “Najdroższy grzech polityków puści nas wszystkich z torbami?” Pardon, 28 October 2008.  http://www.pardon.pl/artykul/6678/najdrozszy_grzech_politykow_pusci_nas_wszystkich_z_torbami

Without the consent of the Church the Rakowski Act cannot be changed. http://www.jerzy-wenderlich.pl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=49&Itemid=47