Back before the collapse of communism the government of Poland issued an order that all crucifixes were to be removed from classroom walls, just as they had been banned in factories, hospitals, and other public institutions. Many church leaders protested stirring waves of anger and resentment all across Poland.
Ultimately the government relented, insisting that the law remain on the books, but agreeing not to press for the removal of the crucifixes, particularly in the schoolrooms.
But one zealous Communist school administrator decided that the law was the law. So one evening he had seven large crucifixes removed from lecture halls where they had hung since the school’s founding in the twenties. Days later, a group of parents entered the school and hung more crosses. The administrator promptly had these crosses taken down as well.
The next day two-thirds of the school’s six hundred students staged a sit-in. When heavily armed riot police arrived, the students were forced into the streets. Then they marched, crucifixes held high, to a nearby church where they were joined by twenty-five hundred other students from nearby schools for a morning of prayer in support of the protest.
Soldiers surrounded the church. But the pictures from inside of students holding crosses high above their heads flashed around the world. So did the words of the priest who delivered the message to the weeping congregation that morning. “There is no Poland without a cross.”
Charles Colson, “Kingdoms In Conflict”
(Zondervan, ISBN 0-310-39770-7)
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