Long accused of supporting the ultra-conservative power, the Catholic Church in Poland is among the first to be targeted by the massive revolt against an almost total ban on abortion in a country generally considered a bastion of Catholicism in Europe.
Braving the pandemic and the restrictions in force across the country, tens of thousands of Poles have been invading the streets of their cities for eight days in reaction to the decision of the Constitutional Court to ban abortion in cases of serious malformation or irreversible of the fetus.
Disrupted masses
Many religious buildings have been tagged with inscriptions accusing the Institutional Church of promoting “women's hell”.
Many demonstrators held up placards and made violent anti-clerical appeals.
Here and there, Sunday masses were disturbed by the irruption of activists inside churches, a situation unprecedented in the modern history of the country, according to images widely disseminated by social networks and the media.
These attacks have, in turn, provoked a firm reaction from the authorities, and mobilized extreme right-wing groups, calling themselves "defenders of the faith", who have already participated in skirmishes with protesters.
Mr Kaczynski, who is the deputy prime minister responsible for national security, called on his supporters to "defend the churches".