They announced liquidation, but the budget is record high. What’s next for the Church Fund?

Over PLN 275 million is planned for 2025 for the Church Fund – according to the Budget Act. Although its liquidation was one of the main demands of the Civic Coalition, no specific actions have been taken so far to make this possible. Instead of disappearing, the fund still finances the pension contributions of clergy and other purposes related to churches and religious associations.

Team work without results

A year ago, on January 9, 2024, the first meeting of the inter-ministerial team for the Church Fund, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, took place in the spotlight. Since then, the team has met only twice – in February and August 2024, and the problem team has met four times. However, there is still no common position in the government regarding the liquidation of the Fund.

The Ministry of Family informed that several variant proposals to solve the problem have already been developed, but at this stage it is not possible to determine the shape of the final decisions.

What are the funds from the Church Fund used for?

The Church Fund, established in 1950 as a form of compensation for churches for property taken over by the state, currently focuses mainly on paying the pension and pension contributions of clergy. In 2023, PLN 213.8 million was allocated for social insurance, which constituted 95% of all fund expenses. At that time, contributions were paid for almost 19.7 thousand clergy.

In addition to contributions, the fund allocates funds for other purposes, such as renovation of religious buildings or support for facilities run by religious associations. In 2024, over PLN 4 million was allocated for this purpose, including: for the renovation of the Orthodox church in Zabłocie, the conservation of the altar in the Dominican monastery in Gdańsk and the reconstruction of the canteen in Strzegom.

The Church Fund in numbers

Despite the decreasing number of clergy covered by social insurance, the amount of the Church Fund is systematically growing. Ten years ago it was approximately PLN 128 million, today it is more than twice as much – PLN 275.7 million in the 2025 budget. This increase is due to, among others, from increases in the minimum wage, which is the basis for calculating contributions.

Donald Tusk announced in December 2023 that the Church Fund would be replaced by a system of voluntary tax deductions. This was to increase the financial responsibility of the faithful for supporting their churches, without burdening the state budget. So far, these proposals have not been implemented, and the work of the Church Fund team is still at the analysis stage.

The Ministry of Family has developed a concept for liquidating the fund, but specific solutions have not yet been adopted. Meanwhile, the Church Fund continues to operate, generating increasingly higher costs.