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To: MeOnTheBeach; Salvation
Also, to your point
So if some there are not Catholic I can understand why they want it removed. They should compromise and switch it with just a regular cross.
That way, to the Catholic and Protestants it would be a religious symbol and to the non-believer it’s just a decoration and everyone’s happy.

Poland is not like the US or the UK. There are next to no "Protestants" here -- it's just not known. People are Catholic or Eastern Catholic or Orthodox or some are Lutheran

I lived near the Lutheran Church above (its close to Plac Piłsudski on plac Małachoswkiego)

the interior of the Church, with a crucifix, Mass etc. is pretty darn similar to a Catholic one.

There is no Catholic - "Protestant" conflict like in the US -- the Lutherans are well respected and the Orthodox are too (as long as they are not pro-Russian!, which none of the present-day Polish Orthodox are -- to give you a brief reason, Poland with Lithuania once included Belarus and Western Ukraine -- together that is Ruthenia. These people were Orthodox. Until 1600s this didn't cause any problems. The Catholics were 60% of the population, but the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth gave freedom of religion, so there was no Protestant-Catholic war like in Germany. Calvinists, Lutherans even Unitarians (Polish Brethren) could freely practise and preach. The counter-reformation was peaceful. There were a few converted back, but the Protestant movement was not successful largely as it was perceived as a German movement or Czech movement. But the religions lived pretty well together. Then in the 1500s, Moscow portrayed itself as the protector of the Orthodox and said that it had a divine mission to gather the Orthodox. This caused a problem because of the Ruthenians. Most didn't want to join Moscowy as they preferred the democracy of the P-L commonwealth. But Muscowy pressed on and got stronger. Then, in the 1600s the Swedes invaded and devastated the country. They were aided by the Calvinists, which forever condemned Calvinism as anti-national) and at the same time Muscowy invaded. Over the next 100 years Russia grabbed large parts of Poland and forcibly Russified many peoples.

For most Lutherans in Poland, they have crucifixes themsevles so the Cross is not a piece of shame for them

Finally, note that the compromise you ask for is with some small minority of anti-religious folks, not "Protestants". It's like a compromise to allow gay marriage

14 posted on 01/18/2013 7:13:05 AM PST by Cronos (Middle English prest, priest, Old English pruost, Late Latin presbyter, Latin presbuteros)
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To: Cronos
Poland is not like the US or the UK...

Finally, note that the compromise you ask for is with some small minority of anti-religious folks, not "Protestants"


Great post. Thank you for all the insight.
15 posted on 01/18/2013 7:36:52 AM PST by MeOnTheBeach
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