A senior Polish MP has accused her country's Church of ignoring
family violence after its leaders denounced a European convention
designed to combat violence against women.
"The claim that the Catholic Church tolerates sexual violence is
quite justified," said Wanda Nowicka, deputy speaker of Poland's Sejm
lower house.
"The Church wants the family to stay together, irrespective
of how pathological it gets."
In his Christmas homily Archbishop Jozef Michalik, the bishops'
conference president, denounced the Government's decision to sign the
Council of Europe's April 2011 Convention on Preventing and Combating
Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence and said the law was a
"blatant attack" on traditional families.