We were informed about the matter by a Reader. In an email to the editorial office, the Reader wrote: “Within a month, someone (or perhaps some group?) dismantled the copper sheets (probably to sell them as scrap metal). They disappeared day after day; in November, several had already been torn off, and on Friday [13 December – editor’s note »ii«], while driving along the Bolesławiec bypass, I noticed that they were already missing up to the cross’s arms.”
They added: “In my opinion, this is a desecration of the cross, not to mention an obvious theft. Copper sheeting is very expensive; rebuilding this cross with copper sheeting would be a huge undertaking and expense. I ask myself whether none of the residents saw this brutal destruction, and whether the police or municipal police know about it. I am afraid that if they are bold enough to dismantle the cross’s metal sheets, they may also unscrew the bolts and bring the cross crashing to the ground.”
As ks. dziekan Stanisław Kusik, parish priest of the Parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, which is responsible for the Millennium Cross, told us, the matter has been reported to the police. What is more, surveillance cameras are soon to be installed in the vicinity of the cross. “It will be safer there,” the clergyman stressed.
The losses were estimated at PLN 2,000. The vandals face up to five years in prison. Proceedings aimed at establishing the perpetrators’ identities and apprehending them are under way. We will return to the subject.
This is what the cross looked like in 2003.
(information: ii)