The struggle between the family and the state has been “a feature of the relentless march of secularism” in the western world, notes Dr Gavin Ashenden in this 60th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for The Catholic Herald, in which he speaks to Barbara Socha.

The deputy minister for family and social policy since 2019 with a specific responsibility for demographic policy, Mrs Socha, a mother-of-five, describes why Poland is willing to bravely buck the western trend by choosing to robustly take the side of marriage and the family and freedom of religion against insidious new ideologies with the aim of creating the “best conditions” in the world for married Catholic couples with children.