Wreckage of the presidential Tu-154. Photo: PAP

A leading Polish bishop has called for the ending of the period of national mourning following the Smolensk air crash last April, which, in line with Polish and church tradition, should last a year.

Addressing a press conference in Warsaw, Kazimierz Cardinal Nycz, the Metropolitan of Warsaw, said that we have the right to ask ourselves: “why did [the tragedy] happen?

“However, we cannot keep on asking posing this question but we have to say: Thy will be done,” Cardinal Nycz said.

“Cemeteries are not our home,” the cardinal added, “and there comes a moment when he have to return to our day-to-day activities and take up the challenges in our homeland and the Church, in our families and in our personal life.”

Cardinal Nycz appealed for a sense of national unity in commemorating the first anniversary of the Smolensk air rash on 10 April, underlying that it should be a day of prayer and reflection.

He expressed concern, however, that this may not prove to be the case, alluding to a possible politicisation of the day.

Asked about the planned public gatherings and remembrance marches close to the Presidential Palace, Archbishop Józef Michalik called for a spirit of solidarity, but stressed that the Church does not intend to interfere in any way into the organization or course of these gatherings.

There will be several religious services on 10 April. Some 400 people – representatives of the state authorities and families of the victims of the aircrash – have already confirmed their participation in a mid-day mass in the Warsaw Cathedral.

A civic committee for the anniversary celebrations, which brings together over 20 organizations, has called for a minute of silence across Poland at 8.41 am on 10 April , the hour of the tragedy a year ago. (mk/pg)