Poland’s Property Commission on Trial for Deals that Handed Millions to Catholic Church

In the two decades following the collapse of Poland’s Communist government, hundreds of millions of złoty worth of land was handed over to Catholic institutions. This was the work of the Komisja Majątkowa (Property Commission), a body set up amid political chaos to provide ‘compensation’ to the Catholic Church in Poland.

Much of the land transferred by the Komisja Majątkowa (KM) later ended up in the hands of private property developers. Facing allegations of serious corruption, the KM was closed down in 2011 and the trial of nine former commissioners opened at Krakow’s district court on February 25 this year. It was almost immediately adjourned until March 25.

The establishment of the KM dates back to 1989 and has its roots in the so-called May Laws drawn up by the penultimate Communist Prime Minister of Poland, Mieczysław Rakowski. The May Laws attempted to bolster relations between the Catholic Church and the Communist authorities prior to the partially free elections of June 4, 1989.

The Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party was struggling to maintain power by courting support from the church, a tactic that failed spectacularly when the clergy accepted the benefits, and then turned their backs on Jaruzelski in both the pulpit and the voting booth.
Seen as a last ditch effort to defeat Solidarność, the May Laws granted Catholic organisations a number of privileges, including tax exemptions and fiscal benefits as well as the framework for the creation of a commission to oversee church property claims and compensation for the 240,000 hectares of land lost during the redrawing of Poland’s borders following World War II.

In 1950, the Catholic Church in Poland accepted compensation for land that has been nationalised by the Communist authorities through the establishment of the Fundusz Kościelny (Church Fund), a body now in charge of social insurance for the clergy. The creation of the KM, however, allowed the church to also seek compensation for properties in the parts of eastern Poland that had been re-assigned to the Soviet Union.

It remains unclear if either the Polish Supreme Court or the Constitutional Tribunal will be able to retrospectively overturn rulings made by the KM. “No one knows if such a decision would engender a conflict of jurisdiction among local authorities now suing for damages,” said Jerzy Wenderlich.

If the KM’s rulings are overturned, or the courts decide that compensation must be paid for property handed over to the church improperly, it will fall to Poland’s tax payers to reach into their pockets once again to patch up the legacy of this strange hybrid born in complicated times.

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