Overview:

• State privilege is bestowed to the Catholic Church throughout state institutions.

• A bilateral cooperation agreement exists between the Holy See and the Polish government; similar agreements are accessible for other (perhaps not all) religious organisations and denominations; whether the contents of these agreements results in the same degree of recognition that the Catholic Church receives is unlikely.

• A situation of partial recognition is in effect because even if a non-Catholic group succeeds in its registration, this does not equate to the level of recognition bestowed to the Catholic Church.

• Informational requirements are intrusive, particularly membership quotas and the use of information submitted is likely used against groups to restrict their activities or to deny their registration.

Positive elements:

• Freedom of religion or belief is generally, yet not universally, upheld by the state.

Recommendations:

• Revoke state privilege for the Catholic Church except if such privileges are also equally bestowed to all religious denominations.

• Establish a revitalised recognition system that has the capacity to bestow both existential recognition and legal registration to all belief systems and their derivatives sufficiently and appropriately and at multiple levels of operation and activity.

• To become dynamic, the Polish government would need to establish a recognition agency that would manage the newly established recognition system independently from government.