NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      WARSAW (CWNews.com) - The Polish government said on Monday that it will not get involved in a controversy over crosses being erected at the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz which has elicited protests from Jewish organizations.

      Catholic worker groups have erected dozens of small crosses in the area surrounding Auschwitz to protest the order to remove Christian symbols in recent years. Jewish organizations had said the presence of crosses is inappropriate at a site where nearly 1 million Jews were murdered. Catholic groups want to erect crosses in order to remember the tens of thousands of Polish Catholics, Russians, and Gypsies also killed in the camps.

      Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek said the government would leave the matter to the proper authorities, meaning the Catholic Church in Poland. "The Polish government hopes that the cross in Poland will always be a uniting symbol and will not be used for political manifestations," he said. Archbishop Damian Zimon of the local archdiocese said placing more crosses at Auschwitz was "unnecessary manipulation," but did not ask for the removal of the crosses already in place. He added that no decision on the matter will be issued by the Church in the near-term.