Bishop at Jasna Góra condemns IVF and abortion, calls education reforms discrimination against believers

Pilgrimage opening

The 35th Radio Maryja Family Pilgrimage began at Jasna Góra on Saturday, 11 July 2026, with an afternoon concert by the Tadeusz Moryto Brass Band from Łącko. In the evening, Bishop Wiesław Szlachetka, auxiliary bishop of the Gdańsk Archdiocese, led the inaugural mass under the shrine's peak, delivering a homily that addressed family, bioethics and the place of religion in Polish schools.

At the core of his message was a sharp critique of in vitro fertilisation. The bishop described IVF as "falsely called infertility treatment" and directed couples struggling with childlessness toward what he presented as Church-consistent alternatives: naprotechnology and the network of baby hatches, known as "okna życia" (windows of life), present in every Polish diocese.

Parents can undertake a treatment method called naprotechnology, which is largely effective and at the same time consistent with Church teaching.

IVF and "windows of life"

The bishop framed adoption through "okna życia" not merely as a charitable option but as the morally correct path for Catholic couples. He told the gathered pilgrims that "to have a child, you can simply adopt one," adding that there is no need to turn to procedures he said are deceitfully labelled as medical treatment. The "okna życia" system allows a parent to leave a newborn anonymously in a secure, heated cot, typically installed at a convent or church facility, after which the child is placed for adoption.

Naprotechnology, the alternative medical approach the bishop endorsed, tracks a woman's cycle to identify and address underlying fertility issues rather than bypassing them through laboratory fertilisation. The Church has long backed it as an ethical fertility-care model, though its effectiveness rates remain a subject of debate among medical professionals.

On abortion and same-sex unions

Bishop Szlachetka widened his critique beyond reproductive technology, turning to what he characterised as the state's dereliction of duty toward the family. He argued that recognising same-sex relationships as marriages and allowing such couples to adopt children amounts to an "act of lawlessness against the child."

On abortion, his language was direct.

Calling the right to kill a conceived child freedom is not freedom, it is murder.

He framed these positions as a positive duty of the state, insisting that "the homeland, as a state, has an obligation to care for the family, and to the highest degree."

Religion classes and education policy

A substantial portion of the homily targeted Polish education authorities. The bishop said that religion classes have been made non-mandatory and therefore "unimportant," with believing students facing discrimination. He listed concrete grievances: religion lessons scheduled outside the main timetable, forcing pupils to wait several hours between classes, and the exclusion of religion grades from the official grade-point average.

Religion lessons are placed outside the class schedule, which means a student sometimes has to wait several hours. Including religion grades in the GPA is also banned, which is not only unpedagogical but disregards students' effort. This is an open manifestation of discrimination and disregard for people who believe in Christ.

The bishop also criticised a school subject he described as "poisoned with ideology, deceitfully called health education." He linked the marginalisation of religious instruction to a broader societal trajectory, warning that secularised schooling would produce "egoistic atheists" who would one day accept or even administer euthanasia, "sentencing to death the old and the sick, and also the smallest, who cannot defend themselves."

Sunday mass ahead

The pilgrimage continues on Sunday, 12 July. Archbishop Zbigniew Zieliński, Metropolitan of Poznań, is scheduled to preside over the eucharist at 11:00 beneath the Jasna Góra summit. The two-day gathering draws thousands of listeners and supporters of Radio Maryja.