Catholic Opposition to Democratic Backsliding: The Paradoxical Case of Poland

In Central and Eastern Europe radical right parties and conservative nationalist Catholic forces share a political agenda that refuses multiculturalism, the liberalization of morality policies and the dismantling of state privileges to the established Christian churches. However, as these parties pursue an autocratic and anti-liberal agenda, they have met increasing opposition by the Vatican and the mainstream and liberal hierarchy. The radical right policies of migration, and, most strongly, of democratic backslide, became a turning point for the Catholic Church’s positioning towards these forces. Nowhere have the tensions between support for radical right governmental policies in the field of morality and opposition to the governmental autocratic backslide become as clear as during the Law and Justice (PiS) government in Poland. This paper contrasts the positioning of the Catholic hierarchy towards the policies of morality with the attitude of the Bishops towards the governmental actions at polity level, namely the systemic attacks at the institutions of democracy of the Law and Justice (PiS) government. In order to explain the paradoxical role of the church the paper will consider the churches’ political theology and institutional relations.