The Roads and Transportation Office has asked archdiocese in the central city of Lodz to remove ads informing about an exhibition of the holy icon of Black Madonna of Czestochowa in a local church - because they constitute a health and safety risk.
The road administration office claims that the banners and decorations are not fixed properly and when the wind blows they fall on passing by cars - which is not very conducive to safe driving.
Besides, the office stresses, the ads are, in effect, Catholic propaganda and the archdiocese did not get a permit to display them, nor have they paid for it.
The Roads and Transportation Office’s call to remove the adverts has been fiercely criticized by members of the Lodz Citizen Alliance, who say that even communist authorities would not dare to forbid the exposition of the holy icon.
The conservative Law and Justice city councilors also condemned the office’s decision and promised to reverse it.
After the city authority’s intervention, head of the Roads and Transportation Office Maciej Winsche apologized to the archdiocese for the “inappropriate form and content of the letter”. (mg/pg)
Source: Gazeta Wyborcza