Polish Church will 'struggle on its knees' to replace crucifixes

Church backs student sit-in
POLISH students continued a week long sit-in at their school this week in protest at the removal of crucifixes from school buildings. A major flareup of an old controversy is threatened as the Church has backed the students.
This latest episode of the "Battle of the Crosses" broke Out at Wloszczowa technical school, 150 miles south of Warsaw, when more than half of its pupils began a protest against the removal of classroom crucifixes, which they had installed at the beginning of the month.
Two priests have joined the sit-in which prompted the headmaster to suspend classes for the past ten days.
Support from the Polish bishops came on Sunday in a letter read out in all parishes. "Irresponsible forces are causing new tensions and anxieties", said the letter, which condemned as provocative the removal of crosses from public buildings, so soon after the murder of Fr Jerzy Popieluszko. "The Polish Church will struggle on its knees until it achieves success in replacing the crucifixes removed from public places" said the statement.
The demands by the students for the right to a crucifix in their classrooms is part of a continually simmering dispute between the Church and the Polish Government, which goes back to the very founding of post-war Poland. The Polish Communist Party has consistently tried to prevent crosses being exhibited in public.
It is normally in periods of political turmoil such as in October 1956 and during the shortlived Solidarity era that crucifixes reappear with limited toleration in such places as school classrooms.
Since the declaration of martial law in Poland, of which the third anniversary was yesterday, the authorities have wished to have the crucifixes removed, arguing that Church and State are separated in law.
In March, the haphazard removal of crosses provoked a sit-in at the agricultural school of St Staszic in Mietne near Garwolin. The protest led to mass pilgrimages to the shrine of Jasna Gora in Czestochowa, where a vigil was held, condemnation by the Polish bishops of "a violation of the citizens' rights of believers" and a hunger strike by Bishop Jan Mazus.
The controversy eventually died down as the State accepted in practice at least, the Church's demand that crosses should remain in place wherever the public overwhelmingly wanted them.
At the agricultural college a compromise was reached when a crucifix was permitted in a communal recreation room but not in the classrooms.
At this stage, commentators are unable to tell whether the Government or the Church are prepared to become involved in a major confrontation.