According to Art. 196 of the Polish Penal Code of 1997, anyone who offends the religious feelings of others by publicly profaning an object of religious worship or a place dedicated to the public celebration of religious rites is liable to a fine, the restriction of liberty or imprisonment for up to two years. This provision is criticized in the scientific and journalistic debate. It is proposed to be deleted. The aim of the article is to review the most important arguments for and against the use of criminal sanctions for offending religious feelings, as well as an attempt to answer the question whether the state should punish this type of behavior and how to properly justify it in a contemporary pluralistic, liberal society. 

The article presents the definition of holy places in accordance with the norms of the Code of Canon Law of 1983. Next, it deals with the cases of their desecration. Further reflections are focused on the way of restoring the sacral character of a desecrated place dedicated to divine worship. The aim of the presentation was to show desecration as an example of defamation concerning religious feelings of believers.

The article highlights issues related to the offense of religious feelings in the context of the main symbol of Christianity: the cross. Feelings in general, including religious feelings, are not imaginary. They play an important role in the lives of both individuals and the community. They motivate a person’s moral choices. There is no religion without feelings. Above all, insulting religious feelings is an offense against religious freedom. A deliberate public insult to a believer’s feelings is a violation of the law. There are several ways to offend religious feelings relating directly to a believer and his or her worship activities as well as sacred places. The most important symbol of Christianity, the cross, is often used by certain circles hostile to religion in general and Christianity in particular, deliberately seeking to offend religious feelings. In this way, it becomes a favored object of offense that is easy to manipulate.

The text addresses the legal protection of religious feelings in the context of Orthodox Church teaching. The analysis of the issue requires an initial definition of the interrelationship of secular law and Christian ethics, followed by a presentation of the problems arising from established legal acts, their correctness, scope and degree of application against actions with ambiguous or difficult to determine intentions. The text focuses on an unambiguous and universally applicable Church view of the issue from the perspective of Orthodox ecclesiology and Church law. At the same time, specific legal solutions are presented from a narrower perspective: that of Polish legislation and the ecclesial principles of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church.

In a pluralistic society that is secularizing and moving away from the foundations of Christianity, such as the society of Germany, there will be tensions and conflicts between the right to freedom of expression and the right to freedom of religion. For this reason, it is debatable whether and to what extent it is possible to restrict the former freedom in favor of respect for the latter. The legal arrangements in Germany regulate this issue quite explicitly and do not so much protect the religious feelings of believers as the preservation of social order. This criterion leads to different decisions in individual disputes. It can be noted that one of the important factors influencing the judgment of the institution of law is often the strength of the expression of one’s disapproval of offending religious feelings, which is less frequent, and certainly weaker, on the side of Christians. The depictions of their contents, symbols and holy figures that offend Christians have more often received insufficient attention from the media and the judiciary than has been the case with other religions. Perhaps this was due to the insufficient voice of outrage in contrast to the followers of Judaism and Islam, who unite in protest and speak with one voice.

French catholic churchgoers, today a minority, are suffering from both internal divisions and external discrimination: they are divided by two schismatic trends, « progressive one » that misinterpreted the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, and « traditionalist one », often close to fundamentalism, which strongly rejects the Vaticanum II. These divisions are made even sharper by pollitical influence of both the right and the left. On top of that there is an external rejection by sectarian and ideological « secularism » in progress. Undoubtedly internal polemics, marginalisation rejection of Christian roots, apostasy, verbal and physical abuse, devastation of objects of devotion, as well as defamatory media attacks weaken the Church in France. She remains between hell of creepiing political persecutions and high water of the radical fundamentalism followed blindly by some faithful.

The article presents the thoughts of two philosophers of language on performativity in speech acts. Then their reception for proclamation in pastoral ministry as well as a common rituality are concretised and further practical-theological research strands for performativity in pastoral theology are named.

The integral development and education of the person is at the heart of both theoretical reflection and pedagogical practice in Catholic education. Undertaken in all areas of the child’s development from an early age, it serves to form the foundation for the child’s entire life and personal perfection. At a time of dynamic socio-cultural changes and challenging events, increasing secularisation, it becomes necessary to improve the practice of early childhood education. In the harmonious promotion of the holistic development of the child and its orientation according to its innate potential and possibilities, it is very important to take into account religious and moral education using the liturgy and its initiatory dimension. This is possible by supporting the family through the use of theoretical foundations and a Catholic preschool pedagogy based on universal values and regularities of child development.

The paper presents the document Guidelines for Polish-language Pastoral Care in Germany, which was prepared by the German and Polish Episcopal Conferences. This joint document, signed on 17 September 2001, is analysed in the context of the provisions included in the instruction Erga migrantes caritas Christi issued by the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People on 3 May 2004. At the beginning of the paper, the author presents a brief history of Polish-language pastoral care in Germany. The successive parts of the Guidelines are then discussed: the preamble, the task and purpose of Polish-language pastoral care, the function of the delegate, pastors and vicars of Polish-language Catholic missions, lay people in Polish-language Catholic missions. Each of these parts is presented in the light of the Erga migrantes instruction. An analysis of both documents clearly shows their consistency and the fact that the Guidelines implement the objectives of the subsequently published Erga migrantes instruction.

The article concerns the results of research on statements regarding parishes, which were presented in the Polish National Synthesis of the Synod 2021-2023. Participants of the synodal meetings revealed many problems in the functioning of their parishes, cooperation between the clergy and the laity, the subjectivity of the laity in the parish, and the role of the liturgy as the center of parish life. Research has shown that the methods of evangelization and formation of Fr. Franciszek Blachnicki (1921-1987) can and should be the answer to many reported problems. His methods of ecclesial renewal based on evangelization, deuterocatechumenate and liturgy turn out to be extremely adequate to the difficult issues related to personal relationships and pastoral structures established in parishes.

The author of this short contribution – a priest of the diocese of Nanterre in the suburbs of Paris – points to the soteriological and ecclesial aspect of Christian reflection on the offense of religious feelings. Turning his attention to the still ongoing history of salvation revealed and accomplished in Jesus Christ, he focuses on the Council’s teaching on the Church as a community of believers and a space of fraternity among people.

The issue of God’s silence arises in the modern world not only among atheists and agnostics, but also among believers. The former, who deny the realm of the spirit, see in it evidence of the tragic nature of the world in which there is no space for God. The latter, that is believers, point to yet another possibility. Referring to the scriptural testimonies about the silence of God and experiencing His “absence” in everyday life, they do not accept the emptiness of existence or the negation of the sense of human fate and the reduction of the question of God to the product of the illusory or fearful imagination of a man not yet mature enough to be independent. What is more, they consider the state of the “absence and lack” of God as a mystical purification necessary for the encounter with the living God and as a spiritual experience of growing up in a fragile human being who takes upon himself the whole dimension of his contingency and the whole immensity of grace in prayer, that is, in the act of trust, confidence and love.

The article is a reflection on theology of spirituality and liturgy. Its main subject is the importance of the Liturgy of the Hours recited daily in the monastic community of Sisters Benedictines of Vanves, France. The article focuses on the role of the psalms, described by the author as “teachers of prayer”. They sanctify man, help him glorify God, but also provide support in the difficulties of life of those who use them in their prayer. Sometimes psalms become a cry of human pain and call for conversion. The author seeks to answer questions concerning the power and vitality of God’s voice present in the psalms, while providing practical tools and tips to prepare for praying the psalms. Moreover, she outlines the role of the psalms in the life of Jesus to show her readers how they reflect His voice today. The article is an attempt to look at the psalms as part of the fabric of the liturgy. They amplify its voice, which is the voice of God Himself.