Pro-IVF politicians not to be excommunicated

Likewise, outgoing president President Bronisław Komorowski, who signed the bill on 27 July, will also be spared excommunication.

However, the Church has said that advocates of the legislation should not receive holy communion until they have “reconciled with God.”

The bill authorises IVF treatment for infertile couples, both married or co-habiting, who have exhausted all other methods of treatment over a 12-month period.

The legislation was vigorously opposed from the outset by the Church, and after the bill was passed by the Senate on 10 July, head of the Polish Episcopate Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki wrote a letter to President Bronisław Komorowski, asking him to refrain from signing it.

In the new statement released by the Legal Council of the Polish Episcopate, the Church has said that while supporters of the bill will not be “automatically” excommunicated, “the sin committed in public of participating in making laws that diminish the dignity of human life, is a particular type of offence.”

According to the statement, those who backed the bill should “refrain from receiving Holy Communion until they have publicly changed their position,” on IVF. (nh/rk)