NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      WARSAW (CWNews.com) - Poland's parliament on Saturday voted to set up new protection zones around former Nazi concentration camps to end ongoing protests involving hundreds of crosses placed near the Auschwitz camp by grassroots Catholics.

      The vote sets up zones around eight former World War II concentration camps where millions of Jews and others were killed by Nazis. Last year, Catholic groups began placing hundreds of crosses in a field near Auschwitz to protest plans to remove a 12-foot cross commemorating a visit of Pope John Paul II to the site. Jewish groups in Poland and Israel criticized the country for what they viewed as the desecration of a Jewish cemetery.

      Under the new law, commercial activity will be limited in the zones and public gatherings will be banned without a special permit. The government did not have the legal tools to remove the crosses quickly and faced the prospect of the Auschwitz issue coming under a heavy media spotlight during a lengthy papal visit in June. The removal of the protest crosses, but not the papal cross, is supported by the country's Catholic bishops.