Christian World | Poland's Catholic bishops say the fight over the Constitutional Tribunal is turning into a deep crisis of the state and urge dialogue, prayer and a peaceful solution

ACW | October 31, 2026 — The presidium of Poland's Catholic bishops' conference said on Saturday that the dispute over the country's Constitutional Tribunal is escalating into a deep crisis of the state, in a statement issued in Warsaw.

The bishops said they are following events around the tribunal with deep concern, according to the statement published on the conference's website. It is not the Church's role to judge the causes of the dispute or who is responsible for it, they said.

The bishops urged all sides not to escalate the conflict, to start a constructive dialogue and to resolve the problems peacefully. They asked "people of good will" to support efforts toward national agreement and reconciliation.

The statement asks Catholics to pray for "light and wisdom" for the country's leaders. It is signed by Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda, the conference president, his deputy Archbishop Józef Kupny, and the conference's secretary general, Marek Marczak.

No response from the Polish government or the president's office to the statement had appeared in published reports.

Background: The dispute centres on which judges are lawful members of the tribunal and who should lead it, the Austrian Catholic news agency Kathpress reported. Prime Minister Donald Tusk's coalition elected eight new judges in parliament, and President Karol Nawrocki refused to swear in five of them. In December 2025, the EU Court of Justice ruled that the tribunal does not meet EU standards because of irregularities in several judicial appointments, Kathpress said.

Why it matters: Without taking sides, Poland's bishops have called the country's political standoff a "deep crisis" and, rather than judging it, called Catholics to prayer and the public to national reconciliation.

ACW will continue to follow this story.

Sources: Polish Bishops' Conference — Statement of the Presidium on events around the Constitutional Tribunal; Kathpress — Polish bishops: constitutional court fight is a "state crisis"

Photo: Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda, president of the Polish Bishops' Conference — EpiskopatNews (archive)