(Photo: AP Photo / Geert Vanden Wijngaert)A portrait of President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria is seen as a priest prays during an official mourning service at the Cathedral of St. Michael in Brussels, Tuesday, April 13, 2010. Polish President Kaczynski, his wife and some of the country's highest military and civilian leaders died on Saturday, when the presidential plane crashed as it came in for a landing in dense fog in western Russia.
(Photo: AP Photo / Mikhail Metzel)The portrait of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, left, and his wife, placed near a piece of the wreckage at the plane crash site in Smolensk, western Russia, Tuesday, April 13, 2010. Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and some of the country's most prominent military and civilian leaders died Saturday along with dozens of others when the presidential plane crashed as it came in for a landing in thick fog near Smolensk in western Russia.
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Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who died in a tragic plane crash Saturday, was remembered Monday by an international pro-family network as a strong advocate of family values.
“President Kaczynski was one of the strongest pro-family leaders in Europe,” said Larry Jacobs, managing director at the World Congress of Families, in a statement. “Despite intense pressure from the European Union, he stood firm for the right to life. The late president also opposed the legalization of prostitution and the normalization of homosexuality.”
Kaczynski, his wife, and nearly 100 other people on board were killed Saturday when their plane crashed while trying to land in Russia. The late president and a high-profile delegation that included military, economic and civic leaders were traveling to Russia for the 70th anniversary of the Russian massacre of Polish prisoners of war in Katyn Forest during World War II.
Though no one on the plane survived the crash, only 24 bodies have been positively identified as of Monday. The body of Poland’s first lady, Maria Kaczynska, was returned to Warsaw on Tuesday.
The couple’s funeral will take place Saturday in Warsaw and a burial has been arranged for Sunday in the historic Wawel Castle in Krakow.
While millions will remember Kaczynski as a political leader, the World Congress of Families remembers him as an outspoken defender of the natural family, even before he became president.
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WCF noted that Kaczynkski twice blocked gay-pride parades while serving as the mayor of Warsaw.
The late president also was a patron of the World Congress of Families IV, which took place May 2007in Warsaw. He also gave the opening address at that conference.
"We were honored by President Kaczynski's support for our fourth World Congress," said Jacobs. "In fact, the initial meeting of the International Planning Committee for the Warsaw Congress was held with his encouragement in the office of then-Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz."
WCF, while preparing for the 2007 conference, had praised Poland for holding onto faith and family values amid Europe’s increasing secularization.
Poland has a nearly 90 percent Roman Catholic population, according to the CIA World Factbook.
"Lech Kaczynski was a faithful servant of the Polish nation, a good friend of the World Congress of Families and a champion of the natural family,” Jacobs said. “We join the people of Poland in mourning his passing.”
Founded in 1997 by Dr. Allan Carlson, the World Congress of Families is the only regular and ongoing international gathering of activists, scholars and politicians in support of the natural family. Since 1997, the WCF has been held four times.
