As top bishops urge a speedy end to the Smolensk cross stand-off outside the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, a former, leftwing, prime minister says the conflict has undermined the authority of both the state and Church authorities.

On Sunday, Gdańsk Metropolitan Archbishop Sławoj Leszek Głódź said during a homily that Poland expects a national monument to be erected at a respectable site as soon as possible.

“The wish of the nation should be fulfilled,” said Archbishop Głódź . This would bring social order and peace among a divided public, he added.

Primate Archbishop Jozef Kowalczyk also called on the faithful not to engage in a struggle over the Church’s most holy symbol and to bring an end to a conflict which has become increasingly politicised.

The appeal comes in the wake of a statement made by Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz last Friday who, on behalf of Poland’s Catholic Church, appealed to the self-styled defenders of the cross protest movement to allow it to be moved to the nearby St. Anne’s church.

Meanwhile, former prime minister Leszek Miller believes the continuing conflict only serves to further undermine the authority of the Presidential Palace, government and the Roman Catholic church establishment.

"It is said the cross unites people but in this case a negative community [around it] has been formed. We are dealing with a group acting against the legal order, which is a cause for concern also for the Church," he told Polish Radio.

Vociferous protests two weeks ago met attempts to the move the cross placed outside the palace in memory of President Lech Kaczynski who died in the Smolensk air disaster on April 10 by scouts.

Leszek Miller accused Law and Justice leader Jarosław Kaczyński of using the cross to fuel public sentiment against the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

At the weekend, police moved protestors camped out beside the cross to the other side of the road in preparation, they said, for celebrations of Armed Forces Day in Poland. (pg/ab)