Detaining of Polish LGBT activist ‘lawful:’ interior minister
PR dla Zagranicy
Julian Horodyski
08.05.2019 13:30
Poland’s interior minister has defended police who detained an LGBT activist suspected of putting up posters depicting the country’s most revered religious icon with a rainbow halo.
Polish Interior Minister Joachim BrudzińskiPhoto: PAP/Jakub Kamiński
The activist was charged with offending religious beliefs after altered images of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa were placed near a church in Płock, central Poland.
The posters showed the Virgin Mary with a halo resembling the rainbow flag of the LGBT community.
Interior Minister Joachim Brudziński denounced what he said was an “act of provocation and profanation of the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary.”
The detention of the activist on Monday was “absolutely lawful,” Brudziński said in an interview for public broadcaster Polish Radio.
Grzegorz Schetyna, opposition Civic Platform (PO) party leader, called the detention “despicable.”
“None of this would happen in a normal country,” Schetyna wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
If the detained activist, Elżbieta Podleśna, is found guilty of offending religious beliefs, a crime under the Polish penal code, she could face up to two years in prison and a fine.
Ninety-three percent of Poles declare themselves to be Catholic, according to Roman Catholic Church officials.
The Black Madonna of Częstochowa is considered Poland’s most important religious icon. A small painting of the Virgin Mary on a wooden panel, it has hung in the Pauline monastery in Częstochowa, southern Poland, since 1384. It is venerated by Roman Catholics and Christians from across the world.
(jh/pk)
Source: PAP