NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      WARSAW (CWNews.com) - The Polish government will take over a plot of land near the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz used in recent weeks to plant dozens of crosses which have angered Jews, Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek announced on Tuesday.

      Buzek said it would annul the lease held on the land by groups linked to those who have planted the crosses in memory of Poles killed by the Nazis. Jewish groups have protested because they say the presence of any religious symbol desecrates the burial place of more than a million Jews killed there. Buzek said the taking of the land will "make further actions possible" without saying whether the government plans to remove the crosses already there.

      The groups planting the crosses said they will defend the markers which memorialize the execution of Poles during World War II as well as a larger cross already in place which marks the place where Pope John Paul II prayed during a visit to the death camp in 1979.