When Poland’s Catholic bishops recently debated their Church’s work abroad, its mission in Britain featured prominently. Since the EU referendum in 2016, there has been much uncertainty among Britain’s large Polish minority, as well as among the Polish clergy ministering here.
At least 1.5 million Poles headed for Britain after their country’s 2004 accession to the European Union, fleeing 20 per cent unemployment and widespread social dissatisfaction. In the wake of the Brexit vote, there were reports that Poles were being publicly confronted over when they would be going home.
While Britain’s official Crime Survey suggests hate incidents are now down, the unease continues. The London-based Polish Express, the highest circulation Polish newspaper outside Poland, has carried a “Brexit-Alert” section, urging readers to “stay informed” about their rights and prospects.
Many Poles have been encouraged by the current simplification of procedures for seeking British citizenship, as well as by promises from Theresa May that those already here will be allowed to claim “settled status”.
Despite this, Wojciech Tobiasiewicz, chairman of London’s Polish Social and Cultural Centre (POSK), thinks the Brexit vote has dealt a severe blow to Polish confidence. While this has mostly affected the “new immigration” – Poles who came after 2004 for work and didn’t plan to settle – he argues that many from the older, post-war and post-Solidarity generations now also feel less welcome.
The falling exchange rate has played its part: though most Poles earn considerably more in Britain, their net earnings even out when the much higher living and accommodation costs are considered. Many have also accepted worse conditions here than they would in Poland. Now that the job market has improved at home, with more support for families and demand for skilled labourers, they’re tempted to go back.
Such developments have had to be reckoned with by the Polish Church, whose London-based Catholic Mission (PMK) currently numbers 217 parishes and pastoral centres, served by 120 full-time Polish priests. Separate missions operate in Scotland and Ireland, where Poles are now the largest minority.
Before Poland’s EU accession, the PMK had dwindled, and was preparing to close parishes attracting fewer than 40 people. All of this changed after 2004, however, and the mission began expanding in response to a sudden high demand.
But there were problems ahead.
In a 2007 pastoral letter, Poland’s bishops urged Poles to stick to the PMK’s parishes, dismaying British bishops who had hoped their communities would benefit from the new Catholic influx.
The call was also short-sighted, since the PMK had nowhere near enough clergy to go round. Today, barely 10 per cent of Britain’s Poles attend Mass, a quarter of the rate in Poland.
A British-Polish church working group was convened to update the PMK’s work; and in 2013, Poland’s Bishops’ Conference announced new guidelines for visiting clergy, including a letter of introduction to British bishops. Yet separation remains the rule.
Mgr Stefan Wylężek, the PMK’s rector, insists the Polish mission will outlive Brexit. England alone is home to 220,000 school-age Poles, he points out, while the annual Polish birthrate stands at around 23,000. Polish Catholic communities have not reported any hostility, while the numbers attending Mass have actually increased since the referendum.
Visiting Britain last June, Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, president of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, hailed the “invaluable work” being done to help Poles retain their “Polish and religious identity”, but said that many feared for the future and were “seriously considering” returning home.
POSK’s Wojciech Tobiasiewicz suggests that increased Mass attendance at some churches could be compatible with a fall in overall Polish numbers, since Polish children born here after the 2004 accession are now reaching the ages of First Communion and Confirmation, and are bringing their lapsed parents temporarily to Mass with them.
Come what may, British Church leaders from Cardinal Vincent Nichols down have made efforts to reassure Polish Catholics that they will always be welcome – and that Brexit shouldn’t carry connotations of personal rejection.
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Some aspects of Polish Catholicism could still have a positive impact in Britain – from the strictly maintained sacramental order to the unashamed vibrancy of popular devotions – while an encounter with English Catholicism could help to humanise the often severe mood of Polish Church life, which takes little account of individual needs.
A pastoral letter from Poland’s Bishops’ Conference to Poles abroad, marking the centenary of the country’s independence, will be read at Masses in late April. It ought to reinstil confidence about the future in a post-Brexit Britain. But it should also encourage mutual respect and understanding between Polish Catholics and their host communities.
Jonathan Luxmoore’s book Kościół, Społeczeństwo i Brexit (Church, Society and Brexit), with Małgorzata Glabisz-Pniewska, is published this spring by Homo Dei in Poland
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