POLAND is one of the last strongholds of the Catholic church as a political power. While popular support for the Church has been constantly diminishing over recent years, its political role has been reinforced since the post-communist Democratic Left Alliance came to power in 1993. The only concern of the new President is to prove that he has totally rejected his socialist past, that he is president of all Poles and that he cannot forget that Poland is a predominantly Catholic country. That is why he appealed to the Parliament to promptly ratify a new Concordat with the Vatican - the Concordat which vests the Church with more powers than the similar agreement reached in 1925.

The state and private media, especially radio and television, have been dominated by the Catholic stance and Catholic functionaries. The Church runs several Catholic radio stations and one local TV station. Secular humanists and the rationalist perspective have been pushed aside from the arena of public debate. Even liberal papers do not feel [Tee to publish articles or statements openly challenging bishops' policies, even those which cause social uproar. The very few media attempts which dare, for example, to disclose the way many churches abuse the right to exemption from import duties are being poetically labelled as 'immersed in a moral morass', whereas using the right to tax exemption in order to import various luxury goods at lower price and selling them on the black market has, somehow, escaped the notice of moral purifiers.

The Church exerts pressure on politicians using the tool of moral blackmail, which at present proves to be effective. The Church has been able to influence state policy and legislation concerning various social issues, education, human rights and the issue which is of special interest to us here -- the issue of European integration. Its never-satisfied appetite for power and property has been the cause of the growing anticlerical sentiment. This is an objective fact, supported by practically all public opinion polls, but it is not visible enough. The secular perspective has been wiped away from the public scene, despite the fact that it has wide social support, also among many believers who abhor the political ambitions of the Church.

All this was the reason that together with our German friends we have decided to make Warsaw the location of the International Humanist Conference which is meant to deal closely with the issue of European integration. We shall discuss and present the humanist vision of unification - its roots, its future and the humanist contribution to the integration process.

At the conference, renowned speakers from Western Europe and the USA, humanists from many countries and Polish leading humanists will raise questions and hopefully provide answers to matters such as humanist contributions to European identity in the past and in the future, secular humanists' vision of education, overcoming intolerance and nationalism, the humanist approach to human rights and liberties, to the future of democracy and social dialogue. There will be workshops on humanist ceremonies, dialogue with churches, discrimination and other subjects. Interested participants will get an opportunity to learn about the situation of the humanist movements in other CEE countries

We believe that the conference will be of great importance to us in our efforts to make secular humanism a visible and accepted cultural alternative to the prevailing dogmatic system imposed by the Catholic Church. To all of you who will be able to come we promise an interesting and meaningful time.

No conference fee will be charged and participants from CEE countries will be provided financial assistance.