Zgromadzenie Narodowe 4 czerwca 2014 Kancelaria Senatu 05

The Sejm cross () is a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

crucifix A crucifix (from the Latin meaning '(one) fixed to a cross') is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the (Latin for 'body'). The cru ...

in the building of the

Sejm of the Republic of Poland The Sejm (), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (), is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the Third Polish Republic since the Polish People' ...

, the lower house of the

Polish parliament The parliament of Poland is the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Poland. It is composed of an upper house (the Senate of Poland, Senate) and a lower house (the Sejm). Both houses are accommodated in the Sejm and Senate Complex of Poland, S ...

. The Sejm cross hangs above the door on the left-hand side of the rostrum in the Sejm Plenary Hall. It was hung there by a

Solidarity Electoral Action Solidarity Electoral Action (, AWS) was a coalition of political parties in Poland, active from 1996 to 2001. AWS was the political arm of the Solidarity (Polish trade union), Solidarity trade union, whose leader Lech Wałęsa (also an AWS member ...

(AWS) MP Tomasz Wójcik and his colleague in the night between October 19 and 20 of 1997, shortly after the AWS and the Freedom Union signed a coalition agreement. The cross was a gift from the mother of Fr.

Jerzy Popiełuszko Jerzy Popiełuszko ( born Alfons Popiełuszko; 14 September 1947 – 19 October 1984) was a Polish Roman Catholic priest who became associated with the opposition Solidarity trade union in communist Poland. He was murdered in 1984 by three ...

, priest and martyr murdered by the

Służba Bezpieczeństwa The Security Service (; ), in full Security Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and commonly known as SB, was a secret police force established in the Polish People's Republic in 1956 as a successor to the Ministry of Public Security (P ...

(

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

political police 300px, East_German.html" ;"title="Vladimir Putin's secret police identity card, issued by the East German">Vladimir Putin's secret police identity card, issued by the East German Stasi while he was working as a Soviet KGB liaison officer from 19 ...

) in 1984. The spokesman of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) protested against the presence of the cross in the Sejm, saying that it was hung there in order to provoke a brawl. Other opponents called it a violation of the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

(which came into effect two days before the act) which states that the Republic of Poland is neutral in religious matters. Nobody disputed the fact that the hanging of the cross was illegal - Wójcik got into the Sejm chamber without any approval and other MPs had never discussed the issue before. Nonetheless, the cross has been hanging in the chamber ever since - even when the Democratic Left Alliance won the elections in 2001. In 2011 the Chancellery of the Sejm commissioned and published four legal opinions concerning the presence of the cross in the Sejm Plenary Hall. A 1997 poll found that 52% of respondents believed that a cross should hang in the Sejm, 29% were against, 16% were indifferent and 3% had no opinion. An 2011 poll found that support was at 70% while 20% were against.
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References

{{Reflist 1997 in Poland Religious controversies in Poland Crucifixes Sejm Catholic nationalism 1997 controversies Conservatism in Poland Catholicism in Poland Polish nationalism

See also

References