Cross proves catalyst for Polish church crisis

Article discusses the battle in Poland over whether the cross initially erected by Scouts to commemorate the deaths of Lech Kaczynski, Poland's president, and 95 others in the April 2010 air crash near Smolensk should stay or go from its location in front of the Presidrntial Palace in Warsaw has had the paradoxical effect of unleashing a debate in Poland about whether the church plays too large a role in this overwhelmingly Catholic country.

The cross has appropriated by a group of hard-right Kaczynski devotees who refuse to allow it to be moved and have turned it into a weapon against Donald Tusk, the centrist prime minister, and President Bronislaw Komorowski, one of his closest allies.

Gazeta Wyborcza, 17.9.10; Cross goes but conflict rumbles on (via PressEurop) http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/news-brief-cover/340941-cross-goes-conflict-rumbles

Polskie Radio, 17.9.10: Poles pleased with cross removal http://www.thenews.pl/national/artykul139785_poles-pleased-with-cross-removal.html

ESO: Background information: Polish president killed in plane crash http://www.europeansources.info/record/plane-crashes-in-smolensk-killing-polish-president-and-95-others/

BBC News, 3.8.10: Poland clash over memorial cross for Lech Kaczynski http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10853307

Polskie Radio, 10.8.10: Warsaw police tired of guarding cross http://www.thenews.pl/national/artykul137461_warsaw-police-tired-of-guarding-cross.html

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