The Church's millionaire patrons

Kulczyk, Starlak, Jopek, Kluska - the most influential figures in the world of Polish business - tend to give more and more financial support to the Polish Church. They are donating money for the renovation of the Jasna Góra Monastery, for building new facilities for prayer meetings, churches, hospices, catholic schools and they also donate a lot of money to Caritas, a famous Polish charity. For instance, Roman Kluska, has been accused of tax fraud after he financed the construction of one of the biggest sanctuaries in Poland. Now he plans to invest around zł.12 million to build a hospice in the south of the country. Jan Kulczyk, in turn, gave zł.1 million for a youth facility for prayer and spent zł.100,000 on medical services provided during the Pope's 2002 pilgrimage to Poland. Some businessmen seem to donate money out of inner need, but others treat their church-related investments as another public relations trick. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, A5) J.J.