CNA Staff, Aug 2, 2020 / 08:00 am
A Polish cardinal has urged protesters to respect religious sensibilities after they attached a rainbow flag to a historic statue of Christ in the capital, Warsaw.
In a statement published on the Polish bishops' conference website July 29, Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz deplored the protesters' decision to target the statue outside Holy Cross Church on Krakowskie Przedmieście, one of the city's best-known streets.
The statue, which depicts Christ carrying the cross and pointing to the sky, sits on a plinth inscribed with the words "Sursum corda" (Lift up your hearts) -- a message that has encouraged Poles during some of the darkest times in their history.
Placed outside the church in 1858, it remained standing during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. The Nazis, who destroyed up to 90% of the city's buildings in response to the Uprising, eventually toppled the statue.
A photograph from the time shows the broken statue lying amid rubble with its finger pointed to the "Sursum Corda" inscription above, which was seen as a sign of God's providence amid the Nazi occupation.