Podstawy prawne rekolekcji szkolnychw polskim systemie oświaty

This paper focuses on legal regulations concerning the rights of students to be exempt from classes in order that they can participate in school religious retreats. It has been established that the regulations in question are systemically incoherent, significantly outdated and at tangent with other acts in the Polish legal system. First of all, one has to consider legally unjustified a solution where participating in school retreats (and hence, the exemption in question) is dependent on curricular religious education at school. This interdependence – in view of which a student must first participate in catechesis to be able to participate in retreats – is not only hard to understand, but it also seems against the law. Executing the consequent prohibition – which means disallowing students who do not take part in curricular religious classes to participate in school retreats – would definitely constitute a drastic and illegitimate constraint on one’s religious freedom and the violation of the Constitutional rule of civic equality. Also, it is legally illegitimate to make conditional the class exemption on students’ denomination and his/her belonging to a given religious group or community; such a community often imposes on its members the obligation to participate in e.g. Lent retreats. The Polish Constitution comprises the right for non-disclosure of one’s religious beliefs or denomination (Art. 53 par. 7). Students cannot be obliged to disclose the details concerning his/her denomination. However, his/her non-disclosure can prevent his/her being exempted from classes in order to participate in retreats. Thus, the current regulations under analysis in force are tentative and provisional in nature. The issue at hand should be regulated at the governmental level, that is in a state legal act which would cover the guarantees of religious freedom.