What are the advantages of an apostasy certificate to a Polish citizen?

Question

There have been reports of an increase in Polish Catholics applying for apostasy certificates to leave the church.

I believe that some Islamic countries' laws are different for Muslims and non-Muslims (e.g. alcohol consumption), and that apostasy can be taken very seriously and may even regarded as a crime. However I assumed that, in the USA and most western European countries, people just walk away from a particular Christian church when they lose or change their faith. The idea that paperwork may be required for Christian denominations is new to me.

I haven't been able to discover if the possession of an apostasy certificate confers any advantages to someone in Poland. Is it merely a formal statement notifying the church that you are not to be counted as a member, or are there wider political/legal/civil rights implications?

Answer 1

It's a political act, not something that people do to obtain some kind of material or social advantage. If someone in Poland has been baptized, then they are automatically counted on the rolls of their local parish, regardless of whether they actually believe in Catholicism.

The background here is that post-communist Poland has veered into right-wing authoritarian populism under the rule of the Law and Justice Party (PiS): PiS has eliminated checks and balances and pursued an agenda of nationalism and bigotry against muslims and LGBT people. Local governments are declaring themselves to be "LGBT-free zones." Abortion has been essentially outlawed. Blasphemy laws have been used repressively against people like Elżbieta Podleśna, who made a poster showing the Virgin Mary with a rainbow halo. Many women are angry at the church and PiS, and there have been large protests, with formal apostasy being connected to the protests.

Many Poles are against these policies, and they don't like the way the Church has allied itself with PiS and/or the political influence of the Church. They don't want to be listed on the rolls of a church that they don't support. There have also been sexual abuse scandals.

Answer 2

The possession of an apostasy certificate does not confer any advantages in Poland. None whatsoever. One may say it actually puts the apostate in a disadvantage, as the process of obtaining the certificate can be quite unpleasant (it depends on the priest taking the apostasy statement - some take it matter-of-factly, some are downright abusive and pile up various obstacles). It may happen that the certificate would become a more severe handicap, preventing its holder from taking certain jobs, such as teaching - such ideas can be now heard from the Ministry of Education, although they are only ramblings of one of its officials (so far...)

Thus, a formal apostasy in Poland is best seen as a personal statement of not condoning the dealings of the Catholic Church and a way of saying that not all baptised people are Church members.

Answer 3

In Germany (and a few other countries), if you belong to any of a certain number of recognised religious denominations, and you declare this when you register your residence (as legally required), then you are eligible to pay church tax (Kirchensteuer).

Apocryphally, I've heard accounts of non-religious people who have registered themselves, in good faith (no pun intended), as having no religion, and later being told that they owe tax (and back-tax) because they were baptised by the Catholic church and are officially regarded as members.

This is one area where formally asking to be removed from the church register isn't just a symbolic gesture, but one with relatively large financial consequences.

Note that the church tax isn't especially small either, at approximately 9% of income tax, for a medium income earner of €50,000, this might amount to ~€1,000 per year (9% of ~€10,000 income tax).

If I was Polish, and I ever had an inclination to move across the border to work for any amount of time, I would pre-emptively leave the church as soon as possible to avoid this sort of situation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_tax#Germany

Random example: https://www.reddit.com/r/berlin/comments/lcn489/finanzamt_asking_for_kirchensteuer_payment_even/

Answer 4

The question is particularly about Poland, but also in general about Western Christian denominations. Many denominations, such as Jehovah's Witnesses and the LDS church (Mormons), have outreach programs that periodically target "lapsed" members with efforts to get them to rejoin their local congregation. Officially withdrawing membership is the only way to get them to stop these efforts. In this sense, withdrawing membership is essentially putting yourself on a do-not-call list. Of course, recent events in Poland are likely driven by different motivations.

Having personally experienced the Mormon church's efforts to "reactivate" me, I can tell you that they have access to third-party datasets and can figure out where you've moved. Invasive practices like this have motivated myself and a number of my acquaintances to officially withdraw membership rather than passively drift away from the church.

The Catholic church doesn't have large, global outreach programs that I'm aware of, but local parishes do sometimes have efforts to draw parishioners back into attendance. I have to imagine some are motivated to avoid being targeted in this way.