One of Poland’s leading bishops has lambasted Poland’s Roman Church establishment and the opposition Law and Justice party for getting involved in the struggle over the Smolensk cross outside the Presidential Palace in Warsaw.
Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek fiercely criticized Church authorities and the opposition Law and Justice party in an interview with a national daily for “pulling the strings and steering the alleged defence of the [Smolensk] cross.”
Bishop Pieronek criticized both politicians and self-styled defenders of the cross commemorating the Smolensk crash victims.
“Those who say “either the cross, or a monument” do not really care about the cross,” Bishop Pieronek told the Rzeczpospolita daily.
The conflict over where to situate a cross spontaneously put outside the presidential residence after president Kaczynski’s death on 10 April has rumbled on since Warsaw authorities backed down from moving the cross to a nearby church some weeks ago.
Bishop Pieronek thinks that President Bronislaw Komorowski
’s decision to try and move the cross from outside the Presidential Palace to St. Anne’s Church was correct but misunderstood by some people.
“There is no justification for a cross or a monument to stand outside the Presidential Palace because it is not where President Lech Kaczynski died,” said Bishop Pieronek, adding that Wawel Castle, where Kaczynski has been buried with his wife Maria, is the finest monument to the presidential couple.
The bishop also blames the Poland’s Roman Church establishment for the development of the row over the cross.
“Bishops should deal with the questions of faith and morality and not the erection of monuments,” Bishop Pieronek said. In his opinion, most bishops are under the strong influence of the Law and Justice party - which has backed the demands for the cross to stay outside the Presidential Palace - and this was noticeable during the presidential campaign. “The Church needs to break with politics,” said Pieronek.
Bishop Pieronek also criticized secular opponents of the cross, who taunted their opponents during a protest in the centre of Warsaw on 10 August. “I heard a cry of despair from people who […] showed how low a man can fall, when he talks about tolerance but, in fact, is a boor".
(mg/pg)
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