NYTIMES/ JUDY DEMPSEY: "Tensions between secular and devout Catholics are nothing new in post-Communist Poland. But these latest demonstrations by the Defenders of the Cross show how patriotism, religion and politics have become so entangled that neither the government, or for that matter the Polish Episcopate, is prepared to take any risks. “The cross has become a religious, patriotic and political symbol that makes the demonstrators almost untouchable,” said Jacek Kucharczyk, director of the Institute of Public Affairs, an independent research organization in Warsaw. “This is a test of the church’s influence and those political parties who hide behind the cross.”
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