Gniezno

“It is a moral obligation of every Christian to take steps to de-escalate a conflict, not to intensify it,” Polak wrote in a letter to his diocese of Gniezno.

At a Trzaskowski rally in Gniezno, Wlodzimierz Mokracki, a 74-year-old who still teaches at technical schools, believes Poland’s 30-year-old democracy is at stake in this vote.

The archbishop of Gniezno, Wojciech Polak, and Stanislaw Gadecki, the archbishop of Poznan and president of Poland’s conference of bishops, refused to cooperate with the filmmakers.

The church and the conservative government jointly organized the three-day ceremonies that opened Thursday in the western town of Gniezno, considered to be the cradle of Poland's Catholicism.

Poland's Prince Mieszko I was baptized in Gniezno around the year 966, chroniclers say.