The Role of the Catholic Church in Facilitating Implementation of Constitutional Guarantees of Cultural Rights During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

According to the research thesis presented in this article, the Catholic Church plays a special role in providing direct access to national cultural assets. The article analyses the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland guaranteeing cultural rights in the light of other provisions of the Constitution, including the principle of subsidiarity and the common good, as well as guarantees granted to religious associations. Moreover, the study analyses the existing provisions of specific acts, Concordat and church law, in order to verify the thesis on the role of the Catholic Church as a depositary of national cultural assets. In the era of the COVID-19 pandemic and the closure of state-run cultural institutions, the Catholic Church allowed direct access to the sacred cultural property owned by the Church, thus facilitating the realization of the cultural rights of citizens of the Republic of Poland.