Poland Mourns President
Posted April 18, 2010 12:14 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Nearly 150, 000 people jammed the streets of Krakow for the funeral of Polish president Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria Sunday.
The funeral began with a Roman Catholic mass at St. Mary’s Basilica, before the procession moved to the 1,000-year-old Wawel Cathedral. This is where the country buries its kings, poets, and national heroes. Kaczynski will be the first president to be entombed there.
Many world leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, U.S. president Barack Obama, German chancellor Angela Merkel and Prince Charles were forced to cancel their trips due to the cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland that has paralyzed many of Europe’s busiest airports over the past four days.
Sunday’s funeral was held eight days after the president, his wife and 94 others were killed when the Polish Air Force Tupolev 154 crashed while trying to land in Smolensk Russia.
The delegation included many of the country’s top-ranking government officials. They had been traveling to Katyn, Russia to mark the anniversary of the slaughter of thousands of Polish army officers executed in 1940 by Russian secret police.
Investigators in Russia and Poland have said the crash was likely a result of human error.
Kaczynski’s death is said to have plunged the country into a grief not seen since the death of Pope John Paul II five years ago.
